Awakenings is a true story forcing people to think more about life and the gifts we have as healthy people. It makes one think about one’s own view of the world, the little things that we often think are important.

As a young boy, Leonard Lowe was as busy playing games and going to school as other children his age. He has a loving mother who cares for him.

The plot later moves into Leonard’s adulthood. He lives in a hospital where he is in a serious condition for decades due to the encephalitis he overcame.

In 1969, Dr. Malcolm Sayer joins the New York hospital where Leonard is a patient. Along with him, other people suffering from either the same disease as him or afflicted with various psychological disorders are placed there.

With the help of a new experimental drug, L-DOPA, Dr. Sayer gradually ‘awakens’ the patients to the real world, Leonard among them. In the process, Dr. Sayer himself finds a long dormant receptivity to love and friendship.

Over time, however, the first of the patients begins to show signs of losing his acquired abilities. Sayer is disappointed, but Nurse Costello convinces him that he has still done a tremendous amount for his patients by bringing them back to life, at least for a short time.

The film is one of life’s saddest yet most wonderful celebrations, with the potential to highlight the things that matter in life.

Parents Guide: 1x short shot of girl in miniskirt. An allusion to the legality of drugs. Some seizures of psychiatric patients can be a bit frightening to more unstable viewers.

Cast: Robert De Niro, Robin Williams, Julie Kavner, John Heard, Penelope Ann Miller, Alice Drummond, Barton Heyman, George Martin, Anne Meara, Dexter Gordon, Mary Alice, Bradley Whitford, Max von Sydow, Harvey Miller, Peter Stormare, Vincent Pastore, Vin Diesel

Crew: Penny Marshall

USA, 1990

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