Awakenings

Awakenings, directed by Penny Marshall is a film based on Oliver Sacks's 1973 memoir, Awakenings. The movie was released in 1990 and revolves around Dr. Malcolm Sayer (Robin Williams) who is a caring and dedicated physician. He works with catatonic patients who survived the 1917–1928 epidemic of encephalitis lethargica. He discovers that this illness can affect a patient’s stimuli mentally disabling them. One of his patients, Leonard (Robert De Niro), is able to communicate via an Ouija board. Sayer believes that the drug, L-Dopa will be a breakthrough and help the patients. He tested it first on Leonard which was a breakthrough and called it his ‘Awakening’. Once Leonard completely "awakens" from his catatonic state he falls for Paula (Penelope Ann Miller) who is the daughter of a patient at the hospital. Slowly all the patients start experiencing this awakening. Sadly, the happiness was short-lived as Leonard started to go back to his catatonic state which showed that L-Dopa was just a temporary fix. Even though everything went downhill yet this awakening taught everyone to live life to the fullest as it is short.