Awakenings (1990)

Personal Movie Rating: 82%

Here is my thought on the movie "Awakenings" (1990):

*WARNING: POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT*

Sometimes Breaking the Rules is Necessary

In the movie "Awakenings", Dr. Malcolm Sayer (Robin Williams) was a physician mainly in charge of taking care of catatonic patients at a local hospital in New York. He discovered that the patients, to certain extent, were capable of reacting to the surroundings after being exposed to certain stimuli. After attending a conference on L-Dopa's success with Parkinson's patients, Dr. Sayer believed that the drug might be useful in "waking up" the catatonic patients under his care. After gaining permission from the head physician and a patient's mother (Ruth Nelson), Dr. Sayer started to test the drug on one of his catatonic patients, Leonard Lowe (Robert De Niro). After numerous unsuccessful trials, Dr. Sayer decided to secretly triple the dosage of the drug administered to Leonard, without the permission of the prescriber in the hospital.

Of course, what Dr. Sayer did was totally wrong. His actions were against the principles and regulations of the hospital.  He didn't know what will actually happen to Leonard after increasing the dosage of the administered drug. It was a risky move with the potential to cause unacceptable harm to the patient. But guess what? The drug worked and it 'awoke' Leonard. So, Dr. Sayer administered the drug to the other catatonic patients and it "awoke" all of them. In my opinion, the end result is all that matters. Yes, the effects of the drug eventually wore off and in the end all the catatonic patients went back into their catatonic states. But at least they had the second chance to live their lives. For instance, Leonard got to see his mother again and meet a girl, Paula (Penelope Ann Miller). In addition, after seeing what the catatonic patients went through, Dr. Sayer understood that people should learn to appreciate and cherish every moment and every person in their lives, because they will never know when it will be the last time they see someone. Also, the "awakening" of the patients served as a motivation for Dr. Sayer and the other doctors to keep trying and never give up, as they knew that it was possible for them to "wake up" the patients after all.

If you follow all the rules, you will end up with ordinary result. If Dr. Sayer didn't secretly triple the dosage of the drug, Leonard and the other patients wouldn't have "woken up" (and, there wouldn't be a movie about this story as well). But don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that people should break every rule. I'm just saying that breaking the rules is sometimes necessary. Well, at least that was necessary in the movie.