A heartwarming drama. Rating: 7.9/10

Robbie and Robin are on a quest for what's the cure for what ills the mind. In this drama that has captivated movie-goers, both young and old. What's your target audience? Thanks!

The acting is amazing. I can't believe this is based on a true story. The ending was extremely sad, but a great movie.

Williams compresses his own special gift of a comic view of life to permit a view that might have become maudlin but saves itself from becoming too much drama . The movie’s theme that I recognized was the immutable reality that positive outcomes are often doomed to transience. As Leonard’s initial awakening begins to revert to the inevitable, the influence of even transient hope in recovery affects lives believable inside and out of the treatment center. Notable, I thought were the Dance with Paul and Leonard’s awakened understanding that our lives depend on the redemption we bring back from our sickness - mental and physical. Worth seeing for me at least once a year for reinforcement of

Beautiful movie that shows how much one doctor can change someone’s lives. Great acting and really makes you think about how we take life for granite. 7/10

A must watch. And an absolute master class in acting. Just remind yourself this is how stories were told back then. Suspend disbelief. Let it soak in. Enjoy.

Williams and de Niro give great performances and the direction is superb. An absolute masterpiece. Tim Treakle

Simply human and hopeful. Robin Williams and De Niro the best acting

Robin and Robert impressive in an also very good film.

I watched this movie going in completely blind, and by the end of the movie I had placed it in my top 5 of all time. Although it is a true story, it also carries a lot of metaphorical meanings along with it. Sadly, for most people in the world, life is suffering, and it is the awakenings along the way that remind us why we are here and what is so wonderful about being alive. The scene where Leonard (De Niro) has his first dance, which also reduced his suffering/tremors for the moment, was such a beautiful display of how life can be sometimes. It's impossible to imagine the difficulty these families went through in real life, but there is still something very telling about humanity in this story and movie. By the way I cried a lot and you probably will too.

I HATE this movie. The acting is great. That is not the issue. You feel like you are going to see people overcome. Instead it is Flowers for Algernon. Literally my WORST nightmare. Nope, just nope.

The acting performances by Robin Williams and Robert DeNiro were amazing and actually save this wildly sad film.

AWAKENINGS will move some to tears, while others will see it as nothing more than overblown sentimentality. I’m firmly in the latter camp.

An earnest feel-good movie with fantastic actors. Would highly recommend.

It is a received wisdom among movie fans that Robin Williams's best work is in films where he wears a beard. The theory is that the manic clown is gone, in favour of a sensitive soul who's really quite a good actor. Awakenings is one such film; again Williams is playing a doctor, this time a neurologist who attempts to get unresponsive patients to respond, and has remarkable results with a wonder drug for which he's worked out an off-label use. Williams is consistent in his performance, only occasionally lapsing into humour and occasionally overdoing the mawkish (or Morkish) sentimentality, but on the whole, it's one of his better efforts. Based on a book by Oliver Sacks, the film has an authentic core, and also a good moral foundation. Williams is the hero of the film because he doesn't give up on patients who appear to have nothing going on upstairs. His co-star is Robert De Niro, who is giving it his best Rain Man performance as a patient who has been 'locked in' for thirty years. De Niro collapses into pure ham towards the end however, when he tries to portray tremors and tics. Where the film fails is that it's not clear whether Williams or De Niro are supposed to be the focus of the film, and despite Williams proclaiming that De Niro's character is his friend, they don't spend enough time together for us to believe that.

When this movie came out, I was in college studying psychology and creative writing. The story of Oliver Sack's work with those patients had a deep emotional impact on me. At the time, I wanted to write science-fiction and fantasy novels. After graduation, I was a licensed social worker in community mental health. I feel like this story is still shaping my life. It took me a long time to realize I want to help educate people about health and medical issues. I hope to combine my love of science and writing. I will mention one negative aspect. The movie is somewhat misleading about Leonard (Robert De Niro's character). The movie references the side effects of psychosis from L-Dopa. In reality, Leonard wanted to discontinue L-Dopa because of the psychosis, not because the drug stopped working for him. For me, the choice between psychosis and lethargica makes the story even sadder.

Sharing an important story, Penny Marshall delivers a beautiful film with remarkable performances.

Absolute beauty of a film

Touching and certainly one of the most beautiful films based on true events and real physical ailments...

Dramatic and emotional about giving life only to have it taken away again.