Wakey Wakey

Film: Awakenings
Format: DVD from NetFlix on laptop.

Of all the actors I have encountered in this massive project, none is so frustrating as Robin Williams. When Williams is reined in by a strong director and force to stay on task, he is capable of both brilliant and affecting performances. When left to his own devices, he is embarrassing. Fortunately for us, Awakenings was directed by Penny Marshall, who has the chops to keep Williams under control, which means we’re in for one of his better and more affecting performances. The other bonus here is that we get Robert De Niro in the sort of role that seems out of character for him.

Awakenings is based on the real experience of Dr. Oliver Sacks in working with patients who had been catatonic for years after surviving encephalitis. Here, Sacks is fictionalized as Dr. Malcolm Sayer (Robin Williams), who takes a job in a psychiatric hospital after working exclusively as a researcher and laboratory doctor. Sayer is uncomfortable around people and patients, and almost for this reason becomes fascinated with this collection of patients who are, essentially human statues.

Arrested Development

Film: Big
Format: VHS from Seneca Public Library through interlibrary loan projected on screen.

Big is the film that made people sit up and start taking Tom Hanks seriously. His career before Big had some good movies, but they were all comedies, and Hollywood doesn’t take comedy that seriously. Sure, there’s a lot of comedy in Big, too, but there’s a lot more here. The film requires a great deal from Tom Hanks, and he delivers like the actor we all discovered he was in later films.

Young Josh Baskin (David Moscow) is a pretty normal kid with normal kid desires and crushes. At a carnival, he makes two important and devastating discoveries. First, the girl he has been crushing on has a boyfriend who is capable of driving (this pushes believability a bit, since Josh is 12, and presumably so is the girl). Second, he’s too short to go on the scariest ride. Despondent, he drops a quarter in a fortune telling machine and makes a wish to be big, and is told his wish is granted. It’s only then that he discovers that the machine is unplugged.