The film tells the story of a doctor's extraordinary work in the Sixties with a group of catatonic patients he finds languishing in a Bronx hospital. Under his painstaking guidance, they begin responding to certain stimuli. He is then given permission to test a new drug on one of his patients.
13 December 1907, Fredriksted, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands
12 March 1945, New York City, New York, USA
6 July 1946, Woodstock, New York, USA
22 April 1954, New York City, New York, USA
21 May 1928, Pawtucket, Rhode Island, USA
1959, Coral Gables, Florida, USA
7 September 1950, Los Angeles, California, USA
22 October 1941, London, England, UK
2 August 1905, Saginaw, Michigan, USA
12 August 1942, South Africa
10 April 1929, Lund, Skåne län, Sweden
19 March 1948, San Francisco, California, USA
27 August 1953, Kumla, Örebro län, Sweden
22 January 1945, Peoria, Illinois, USA
3 May 1950, New York City, New York, USA
March 10, 2005
Tour-de-force performances and one memorable storylineJanuary 15, 2012
Maybe life affirming, but hardly life-changing.December 22, 2010
Nonfunny Robin Williams role in moving story.August 15, 2014
Williams gives his best "straight" performance, shorn of all his marvelous manic vaudeville. The man he plays here is not a performer, which he was even in Dead Poets Society, but simply a man.July 05, 2007
A beautifully moving, life-affirming true story.May 23, 2004
Solid medical drama. Williams is terrific in a straight role.August 14, 2003
Utter goo.June 05, 2004
Moving and over-sentimental - but Marshall's best film.November 02, 2004
I remember this film, which I saw 13 years ago, as a squishy article redeemed by two strong performances; I am not inclined to go back for a second opinion.May 20, 2003
Moving and well-acted.August 17, 2014
a curiously-underloved film... Awakenings will get a re-evaluation in the wake of Williams' passing, and that's great. It's just a tragedy it took a tragedy to precipitate it.February 01, 2007
A potentially intriguing story, based on the actual experiences of Dr. Sacks, gets a characteristically middling, sentimental and uplifting from director Penny Marshall.