Awakenings

Based on a true story as related by neurologist Oliver Sacks, Awakenings stars Robin Williams as the Sacks counterpart, here named Dr. Malcolm Sayer. Something of a klutz and naif, Dr. Sayer takes a job at a Bronx psychiatric hospital in 1969. Here he's put in charge of several seemingly catatonic ...more

Loosely based on a book by real-life neurologist Oliver Sacks, Awakenings (1990) marked the high point of a successful side career for Sacks as a chronicler of unusual medical case histories. Although the film too often displays the easy sentimentality typical of director Penny Marshall, and the plot pitted its heroes against mindless hospital bureaucrats in a tired effort to force an antagonist into the proceedings, the career-high performances of stars Robin Williams and Robert De Niro make it ...more