October 7, 2025 • 43 mins
This week on Movies In A Nutshell we take on Awakenings (1990), the acclaimed drama starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro.
Haven’t seen it? – We’ll help you decide to press play or skip with a quick spoiler-free movie breakdown.
Seen it? – We’ll make you want to watch it again by uncovering things you may have missed, even after multiple viewings. Plus movie trivia you never noticed!
🎬 Awakenings (1990) – In A Nutshell
PART 1 – The Nutshell – If you haven't seen it
A clear, spoiler-free basic plot/style breakdown, plus movies it can be compared with and all to help you decide if it’s your kind of movie.
PART 2 – Unboxing – If you've seen it
- What Did You Miss? → Hidden layers, details, surprises and things you may have missed even after multiple viewings!
- Paul’s Facts of the Day → Trivia, production stories, and film facts.
- Hate It or Rate It? → Marc, Darren & Paul give their brief opinions, scores and see where it lands in the Legend League!
PART 3 – Listener Lounge
Listener questions, shout-outs, and movie requests.
📌 Movies In A Nutshell is a movie podcast with spoiler-free breakdowns, film reviews, and trivia in every episode.
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🎙️ Hosts
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Darren Horne
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Paul Day
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:12):
Hello and welcome to Movies ina Nutshell with me, Marc Farquhar,
myself, Darren.
Horn and I, Paul Day.
We help you spend less timebrowsing and more time watching.
If you've seen the movie,we'll reveal what you might have
missed.
If you haven't, we'll give youa quick spoiler free breakdown.
We've got behind the scenestrivia including Paul's facts of
the day, host ratings.
And a legend league table,plus your.
Chance to choose a movie.
(00:33):
So grab some popcorn and let'sjump into this week's movie. Okay,
Here we go. Awakenings 1990.This was my choice. So we are in
part one, which is thenutshell in which we will break the
movie down spoiler free tohelp you decide if it's your kind
of movie. So in a nutshell,how do we break this movie down?
(00:54):
It's about a doctor who endsup in a role that he didn't expect
and wouldn't want because itdid. It means dealing with patients
and he's a research focused ofdoctor who doesn't have great social
skills. He gets allocated to award which is known as the garden
because he did just keepwatering and feeding these people
because they're semi comatose.And then it's. He's.
(01:15):
These people have been writtenoff basically, haven't they?
Written off by society. Andthen it's his story of how he leans
into that role and then triesdifferent solutions to try and help
these people.
And then through hisexperimentations he finds how it
helped them differently. Andit's in the character of the doctor
himself. He's quite anintroverted person in his personal
life. So it's very much allabout the work. And he likes plants
(01:36):
and I just thought he likesplants and things. And it's called
the garden. I only justconnected that now. But yeah, so
it's about his kind of journeywith these patients as well. So the
interactions he has and. Andthe staff as well in the actual institution.
Yeah, Hospital.
Yeah.
It's definitely about the. Thebeauty of the human condition, I
think, good and bad and thebig headline.
(01:57):
For me, it's one of thosefilms that makes you feel very privileged
without a doubt. Yeah.Privilege to have things that you
don't think about.
All the things that you takefor granted.
All the things you take for granted.
Like a glance or a smile or ashared silence.
Yeah.
Everything has lots of meaningbut you just sort of take it for
granted.
And at the end of the dayeveryone has problems of some degree
but this sort of makes you go,oh, my problems pale in comparison
(02:20):
to someone who maybe has someof these problems, whether that's
family members or the personactually suffering from these things
themselves. So yeah, the humancondition, like you say, good overview
of it.
Hard to think about otherfilms that it's like though. I mean
obviously you've got oneflavor of the Cuckoo's Nest to a
little extent.
I've never seen that, but Iwrote that down because I figured
it would be similar sort offilm. I'm going to watch it now.
(02:42):
I've seen this just to see. Ialso put Robin Williams did a few
drama sort of films. Like. Ihaven't seen some of them. Patch
Adams, things like that.
Yeah, sure.
I guess that's these maybesort of films as well. When Dreams
May Come. I haven't seen thatone either. But he did like a few
more dramatic roles, didn'the, over his course. Course of his
career? Well, he did lots ofdifferent things but he had sort
of feel good slash drama. GoodWill Hunting, I suppose as well.
(03:05):
Yeah, it's a drama. So itmeans Robin Williams has to sit on
a bench at some point.
Yeah, that's a good point. Ialso put maybe Hospital Brain. I
haven't seen Rayman either, but.
You haven't seen Rayman.
No.
That's a small tally in thelist of films I've seen. You have.
I know.
Wow.
I've got them stacked already.Watch. I just haven't seen them yet.
(03:25):
But I'm imagine because itcame up after I'd finished this one
on Amazon prime saying maybewatch Romance or maybe that's one.
And I also got some Housevibes. I watched a lot of. I watched
House when he was trying tofigure it out and things there was.
That's what House. House isbasically. If you've not seen. It's
almost like Sherlock Holmesbut medical. So. So he tries to figure
out how to fix people. What's.He's a diagnostician.
(03:48):
Yes.
In the room, so boardcertified. Oh yeah, of course. He's
got attitude. Is that man. Yeah.
It's always Lupus.
This movie will appreciate.Appreciate you just being alive.
Yeah.
A life just been able toexperience things and have memories
and well, emotions.
I think I. I don't tend towatch drama because there's enough
drama in my own life. But whatdrama does really well is show it
(04:12):
allows you to look through akeyhole, another way of living or
someone else's story. And yes,fun to watch action movies or war
films even if they're based ontrue story. You would get an insight
into stuff, but when it's adrama, it's like, wow. Other. Other
people suffer. Like otherpeople go through a lot.
I think every once in a whileyou need to watch a movie like this.
And we haven't mentioned yetthat this is based on real events.
(04:32):
It is based on a real. Realevents in a book like this.
1969.
Yeah.
And I think it was written by.Well, there's. The book is written
by Oliver Sachs, MD.
That's whose kind of basedRobin Williams is based on. Yeah.
Because the value of lifeisn't measured in length. It's the
depth. It's like theexperiences, memory, connections
with people.
I put human spirit and simple things.
(04:55):
All of that into spotlight.Basically, he's an uncle. He uses
unconventional methods to tryand get through these people because
no one else has been able toget through to them.
No. And at one point they arelooking at it and realizing, oh,
this has just been leftuntouched. So the character going
into this environment is whatkind of propels the narrative forward
for the film.
I'm not entirely sure it wasunconventional. I think he just tried
(05:16):
methods and people had givenup for like decades and just hadn't
tried anything.
They just accepted them to thefate. And. Yeah.
And he's worth trying. Let'stry finding a course, try fixing.
Let's find out what. What thisis as.
Again, I've started likewriting notes. I used to just wing
it, but now I've startedwriting notes about.
So proud.
So as it.
You're a nerd. Yeah, totally.
Okay. As the story unfolds, itexplores themes of compassion, perseverance,
(05:42):
and the question of what doesit truly mean to be alive, like in
the present world?
Yeah. And also, what's theword I'm looking for? Like inspiring
other people. Because he'sapproaching fresh eyes, starts to
inspire other people.
That's true.
And you know, I work in theteaching profession and there's.
There's times, there's monthswhen that can be a real grind. And
even like in recent times,you. Someone's joined the team who's
(06:04):
just got energy and it's likea ray of.
Inspiration is kind of infection.
And you're like, yeah, just. Ican try new techniques, I can try
new strategies. Just get ourenergy up again. You know, it's amazing
when those people join your workplace.
And sometimes you need thatouter perspective almost to. To make
you go, oh, why? You triedthat outside the box.
(06:24):
Yeah. Or flipping something onits head and go, why not try this
way?
Like, I Said it's that he saysin the film I'm not very good with
people. But then in the filmyou sort of see him working with
all these people because he'sa very compassionate character. And
then seeing how his characteract goes through as well.
Yeah.
Again, inspirational. Both himgoing into the place, but then the
inspiration he gets from thepatients as well. So it's kind of
(06:47):
that two way thing. He'sbringing inspiration with his new
ideas and they're giving himinspiration just by what happens
in the film.
Okay, let's move into parttwo, which is the unboxing located
in spoiler territory. So fromthis point forward, there will be
spoilers. So if we've piquedyour interest and you feel like you
(07:08):
want to go watch Awakenings,feel free to go and do so now, then
come back because there willbe spoilers from this point forward.
So in the unboxing we havewhat did you miss? Where we will
highlight things you may havemissed. Even if you've seen the movie
many times. Paul will give ushis amazing facts of the day and
we round off with Hate it orRate it where we each give our opinion
and a score out of 10 and seewhere it lands on the Legend League.
(07:28):
What did we miss inAwakenings? I'll go to you first,
Darren. The horn section.
This is the horn section.
I think how horrible theseplaces were and how in 1969 how he
treated other human beings.I'm not sure you would miss it, but
we miss it in a way becauseit's kind of almost like a sanitized
version. And it's like, yeah,we call this place the Garden. It's
(07:48):
sweet and we keep them fed.
And water sugar coating it.
Sugarcoat in it, really. And Ithink it's interesting that when
Leonard can speak, I'm curiousto think about the things they witnessed
that he could have called himout on. He could have been like,
wait, you did this to me whileI was in that state. Or you didn't
do anything, or you didn't doanything. Or like I really wanted
him to say when he meets themain woman who kind of is helping
(08:09):
Robin Williams, his character,him to be like, oh, I appreciate
that you are nice to me. Andeven just having that line would
have been good because itwould have suggested that some of
the other people aren't nice.
I think initially though,they're just so happy to be alive.
Yeah.
That just takes precedent ofeverything. They just want to live
and just experience things.
Yeah. And because there's abit Where I think there's two nurses
who have checked out. They'relike, oh, we've given their drugs
(08:30):
and then they're just watchinga soap opera.
Yeah, yeah.
I think that's kind of thereality of it. And I think the thing
that they don't really makeclear is that they've almost got
like, locked in syndrome.Like, they're kind of aware of what's
going on. And he went, he goesand asks Max Bonsai do. And he's
like, oh, we know they're not.They're not awake in there. And he's.
How do you know? He's like,because it would be unthinkable if
(08:52):
they are so. Well, so you'lljust say, no, that can't be true
because it's unthinkable. Andit makes me. I remember that fact
that, you know, scientists andthe medical profession used to think
the babies couldn't feel pain,so they would just operate on them
with no anesthetic and stuff.
Just think, I always thinkthat, like, what will we know tomorrow?
The stuff that we used tobelieve that we now know is not good.
(09:13):
And it's like, what do webelieve now still? That one day someone's
going to look back and belike, wow, did they really think
that?
Like back in the 50s whendoctors used to prescribe smoking
cigarettes.
Yeah, exactly. And now they'relike, yeah, not so good.
Back in the days before research.
Yeah, research, me search. Whoneeds that?
But that's. That's really the.My kind of takeaway from it. Just
(09:33):
this. Yeah, it was a slightlykind of standardized view of it and
I think it would be easy toskip over just what. How hellish
I think these places couldhave been at that time period.
For me, that hit home probablythe most was, we're in spoiler zone,
aren't we?
Yeah, you never know where weare. You are.
I know we are. But I like todouble check before I blurt out like
a massive spoiler in. In thefilm. Obviously, he had. They have
(09:58):
the awakening and you start tosee them as actual characters and.
People and what kind of peoplethey were.
People they were and realizingthey've lost all this time and then
the sad downturn of the film,which I wasn't expecting because,
you know, I'm prepared for myhappy. No, you know, is where they
start.
To think about you.
I found that turn really harshto cope with, where it's like, no,
(10:19):
no, they can't go back. Andthen someone says a line in the film
around how well isn't that howall life works. We all have this
start and we have this end andthere's these bits in the middle
and it's just making the mostof the bits in the middle or something
like that. How we can justmaximize the most. It really is a
film that makes you feelinspired and privileged with the
(10:39):
human spirit stuff.
But also down to money. Imean, obviously it's set in America,
so it's a whole financialthing. And I just think as a society
we should be judged by how wetreat the most vulnerable. And the
fact that they don't have likean amazing outdoor space or garden
to sit in or the fact that.
Tv, it's called the garden,they don't have a garden.
(11:00):
Exactly. And the TVs kind ofdoing that, not focusing and yeah,
the guy prefers it when it'sflickering. Yeah. Vertically. And
it's like you can't get like acolor TV or whatever. You can't.
This is horrendous.
That's what I'm saying. Butagain, they've written these people
off so they don't think it'sworth spending any money on these
things. They don't think it'sgonna make any difference.
But you talk about money aswell. There's the scene where the.
It's like, how much do you puta price on? Hum, on your human experience.
(11:22):
Yeah.
And it's like, well thisdrug's working with this guy. We
need to give it to everyone.And he's like, well how much? And
he says, write down somewhere.But he says, how much?
He said x12000.
And he's like, yeah, well wecan do that. And you think about
that. That's someone's seeinghow at that point in the film that
they thought this had fixedhim or you know, improved his circumstances
so much. They're like, no, westill can't do it. And then all the
(11:44):
staff start putting in their checks.
It was such a reflection onthe society at that time. And even
now someone's life haschanged, but they're still asking
questions about money.
But also I saw that as anindictment on the system because
it was like, well, thesenurses and janitors and stuff are
putting in money to providehealth care that would have life
changing implications. And youknow, I'm in a teaching profession
(12:06):
as you know, and there's a lotof teachers who have to do that.
And you know, I love teachingand I would kind of complain about
the teenagers I teach a lotbut you know, I get to teach film
and, and you know, they makeamazing Stuff sometimes. And you
see them grow and it's. It's.Yeah, it's excellent seeing them
develop a love of educationand progress. But again, teachers
spend their own money on a lotof this.
(12:26):
They shouldn't have to.
No. You know, then he's got togo and pitch. Who is it that they.
The directors or the.Whatever. The. Yeah.
And then they all kind of signchecks. But the government should
be funding this stuff. It's horrendous.
But that was a bit. It's like,well, what's the bottom line? I'm
thinking, well, never mind thebottom line. You've just discovered
that this might change allthese people's lives. And it's amazing.
I think that everything's so.The film we reviewed last week, everything's
(12:48):
about money. Everything'sabout making this money thing. It's
like, well, where's the humanexperience in all this? And I know
the world's got to revolvesomehow and we maybe need.
It always has revolved aroundmoney, but more so now than ever.
But when it gets to that thingwhere it's like, well, you've seen.
It's just changed this guyfrom what, almost a coma pretty much.
And a. To actually function inhuman being. Yeah. Powerful, powerful
(13:11):
film in terms of that kind ofmessage throughout it.
Honestly, I think the otherthing is the warning. How easy it
is to get jaded in your joband just take things for granted
and then to dehumanize peopleand just be like, absolutely, I'm
not gonna. I'm just gonna getthrough the day and put myself first
and. Yeah, but Bobby Williamsis really good at doing that kind
(13:32):
of innocent, kind of fairytale dreamer kind of character.
Very laid back role for him.This was very holding back, very
reserved compared to what weused to.
Yes, I have thoughts on that.When it gets to our opinion.
Okay, okay. What? Something Idon't know if anyone picked up on
is how he also had anawakening because he doesn't do anything.
(13:54):
He goes home, he's nothing. Bythe end of the film he goes, yes,
I will go on a date with you.Yes, I will do this. He starts opening
up to things because he'srealized he's not preciating life.
He's just walk going throughthe motions and just doing the same
thing.
That also had Good WillHunting vibes for me. I was going
to see about the girl.
Is that woman the voice ofMarge Simpson?
Correct?
Julie Kavan pissing on your.
(14:14):
Sorry, I know.
I was saving that one.
I think everyone picked up onthat straight away.
I didn't.
Did you?
No, not at all.
Okay. So as you startedtalking, I was like, is that Marge
Simpson?
That would have been.
Sorry for.
Just pissed all over my thing.No, that's fine.
I can edit that bit out if you want.
No, no, no, it's fine.
I just figured it was anactress doing a voice, not her actual
voice.
(14:34):
She was picked because of hervoice. And that's. That's it.
But don't forget, the Simpsonsstarted, what.
1989, I think it was. Already started.
Just about started at thatpoint. But that's quite a sweet relationship
between them two because thatsort of develops over the film as
well. Leonard says, oh, shelikes you, basically. You know, you're
a kind man.
(14:54):
And he may have quit. He wasalmost gonna quit. And she walks
out and she says, I like yourversion better.
Yeah. That gives him justenough to keep going.
But isn't that true of most men?
We just need, like,encouragement, support, a pat on
the back.
Yeah. Just. You're doing okay.Keep going. Okay, thanks.
He was almost as pivotal ashim in that place, as that team,
(15:15):
I suppose.
Yeah, for sure.
That's what kept him going.
And also in winning over therest of the staff.
Yeah.
I have something I picked upon, which I don't. I definitely wouldn't
have picked up on this if Iwasn't a parent now. But there was,
like, some parenting childreferences. When he takes the group
on that trip, they're bored.Like, he takes you to the places
that he wants to go. He's notthinking, what would they want to
do? And there's later in thefilm, or maybe even early in the
(15:37):
film, where the woman visitingher son.
Yeah.
And she goes, you don't havechildren, do you? And he goes, if
you did, you'd know.
But also, it kind of hints atthe toxic kind of mother relationship
where she would rather he wasin that comatose state so she can
look after him almost likehe's a doll.
She want to become independent?
No. And, you know, we hear stories.
That's normal parenting, though.
(15:58):
Yeah. And it can be like, someparents will sabotage your kids.
Chances are going to unibecause they want them to stay close
to home or they don't wantthem to leave because it gets wrapped
up in your sense of identity.I think it can get wrapped up in
your sense of identity, beinga parent. And it's like leaving the
military or leaving, like, aprison. It's become.
Well, some people, all theyhave is parenting.
Yeah.
Once a child has left, flownthe nest. They've got nothing.
(16:18):
And they'll be like, what'syour greatest of achievement? Oh,
you know, having a child.It's. You haven't brought up a kid
who's cured cancer.
You could be a careercriminal. You proud of that?
Yeah.
Well, then that takes thekid's identity away because. Because
there's a bit with De Niro,he's doing his hair for the first
time because he's lost 30years of his life, hasn't he? So
he starts doing his own hairand. And she's like, what have you
done to your hair?
(16:39):
Yeah, these, like,conversations you would have, like
a little kid when he started,like, becoming himself and.
But that's him trying to forgehis new identity, isn't it? And she's
like, no, no, you know, you'restill my. My boy.
So this film was based onOliver Sacks.
Yeah.
Real life memoir, which adds abit of weight to the story. I had
to look it up. I did. I wasn'taware of it.
Which is also. I get why it'ssanitized, because, you know, the
(17:00):
bad guy isn't massively a badguy. He's just a bit of a pure crowd.
And it's got to manage thehospital and keep money. He's got
to balance the books. But I'mcurious if in the real, real story,
there were some people who aremuch darker in the way they kind
of ran things or the way they behaved.
Well, John Heard was the guyin question, the actor playing that
character. And Penny Marshalldirected it. And I'm almost like,
(17:23):
penny Marshall. Why do I knowthat name? I know it because she
directed one of my favoritechildhood films, which is slightly
problematic now, Darren, butlet's not go down the road. But a
film called Big with TomHanks. And John Heard is in that,
which.
Is interesting because thenshe's got two movies where adult
actors are playing children within.
That's true.
And she led both of them toOscar nominations.
(17:43):
I haven't seen Big film when Iwas a kid. I saw loads, but I wonder
why. It's problematic, but I'mthinking, yeah, the age. The age
gap.
Yeah.
Especially if that was theother way. Anyway, still. I'm sure
we will do that.
It's still a childhoodfavorite film of mine because he
had. He had the coolestapartment of all time.
Yeah. Great film. Every. Everychild. Every child's fantasy, that
(18:03):
film. Yeah.
But John Heard apparentlydidn't want to play it too much like
the character he played in big.
Okay.
So they changed it about Alittle bit. So, like you say, that
was my point. Maybe the reallife version was a little bit more
harsh, and the only reason hehad a bit more empathy was because
John Hurd didn't want to playthe same character as he did in Big.
I thought De Niro's acting wasgood in this. Like, the. The physical,
(18:25):
like, all the gestures and thetwitching, like, that took some.
Yeah, that's a masterclass inportraying, like, an illness or in
recovery as well. But there'salso the bit of sweet contrast between
initial joy of recovery, butalso the heartbreak of, like, decline,
I suppose.
Yeah. I found thatparticularly heartbreaking. Because
you thought. Well, I thoughtit was going to be the sort of movie
(18:45):
where they all got better.
But I also wonder, would someof them have said, don't let me go
back to that.
Yeah, I don't want to go backto that state.
Yeah. Well, a lot of themshowed signs of despair because of
how much time had passed.
Yeah.
Or they just wanted to. Theyjust want to go outside because they
were okay with the fact thatthey've lost a lot of life, but they
just wanted to get out and escape.
That's where Leonard wasfeeling like he's woke up from this
(19:09):
cage of himself, but now he'sbeen kept in his.
Own cage, but he's alsofeeling like, I'm fine, I'm okay.
Yeah.
He's like, can I just go down,have a coffee and just watch people?
But then obviously starts todecline again. And watching that
struggle back to the.
Decline it's portrayed, it'salmost like that is the point where
he declines because he's beentold no. Try and say yes as much
as possible. An emotionalroller coaster, that one.
(19:30):
I wrote a note about seeing,like, seeing things because there's
a lot of glasses cleaning.Lots of focus. Seeing. And she catches
the glasses, and he seessomething that they don't see well
after.
Every time he cleans hisglasses, something happens.
Yeah, yeah. And the fact thatthey've all got this reflex, and
he's the one who sees that,whereas no one else was looking for
(19:52):
it. And then at the end,obviously, he. He then has his awakening
by saying, let's go for a cupof coffee with Madge Simpson.
Yeah.
Sorry, Julie. Sorry.
But, yeah, not ashamed toadmit I cried twice in this film.
Oh, wow.
So the first one was when shesaw him. When she came in, saw him,
like, basically alive afterbeing a vegetable. That was quite.
(20:13):
The second one was when hejust wanted to go for a walk and
they wouldn't Let him.
Yeah, he gets all stressed.
That got me the years ago andwatched it and that got me now.
I had a few moments. I was struggling.
Yeah.
Particularly when they allstarted to go back to what they were
after having started declining again.
Yeah. You realize this wasonly going to be a temporary thing.
It's not sustainable. No, basically.
And that speech, when RobinWilliams does say about. It's. It's
(20:38):
life, and there's like a kindof, like you say, goodwill hunting
sort of vibe to whateverspeech he says at the end, which
is quite Hollywood, I suppose,as well. But it kind of hits you
in the fields with actuallyseeing where it all went. And again,
Robert, what's it called?Leonard, the character, you know,
he meets this girl and for aminute they. You think, oh, he's
met this girl and she's verynice with them. And you think, oh,
(21:00):
this is gonna be the romancebit of the film. But then obviously
he declines the next timethey're together and he's struggling
to get through it. And. And itwas nice, though, to see that she
still went and read to him.
She didn't give up on him.
She didn't give up on him. Andthere's the dance scene that was
very emotive as well.
Yeah. So, Yeah, I forgot about that.
Yeah. Yeah. Where she saw thewhole. And it's Tremors stop for
a little bit because he feelslike he's being held.
(21:21):
Tough one. Tough.
Tough.
It's a very sad film. It's asad film.
It's done in that sort oflight tone that you would expect
from the 90s and these sort ofdrama things. But, yeah, the underlying.
But the messages that you takeaway from it are probably the important
things with this one.
Yeah. It's alsounconventional. It doesn't have a
happy ending.
No.
Which is not what we used to.Certainly Spielberg wouldn't do this
(21:43):
film well.
Or maybe he would. But thereality. Because it's a based on
a true story.
Yeah.
Isn't it?
Okay, that takes us on toPaul's Facts of the day.
Backs of the day. Did you knowthat the person who plays the nurse
is actually Marge Simpson? Oh,oh, wait, wait. That one's already
been done. I was gonna mentionit. It's fun. It had six wins and
(22:07):
11 nominations. The AcademyAward nominations. It had three.
So Best Picture, Best Actor ina Leading Role for Robert De Niro
and Best Writing ScreenplayBased on Material from the book.
Did it win any?
No, they were all nominee ones.
Do you know what it lost out to?
No, I meant to that year.Yeah, it'd be interesting to know,
actually, because I can'timagine much being as dramatic as
(22:28):
De Niro is in that role.Anyway, onwards we go. Some more
facts of the day. Prior tofilming, the cast members portraying
the patient studied films ofDr. Oliver Sacks. Post I can't say
this word. Encephalitis, Isthat right? Encephalitis patients
and De Niro and Robin Williamsspent times with Sachs in the hospital
observing him and hispatients. So they did research to
(22:50):
get that follow for the movie.De Niro actually filmed a scene with
Lillian T. Who was the onlysurviving patient from the book.
And she was also said to havebeen the most outspoken patient in
the 1974 Yorkshire Televisiondocumentary about the patients, also
called Awakenings. So De Nirodid meet up with one of the actual
(23:10):
patients from him. De Nirowanted Shelley Winters to play his
mother. However, the studioinsisted that she read for the part
first and Winters refused todo so. So when she met the casting
director, she reportedly putboth her Oscars on his desk and said,
some people think I can act.
Ooh, egotistical biatch.
Bit of. Bit of ego in therethen. And as we already sort of alluded
(23:32):
to, it's. It's a nonfictionbook by Oliver Sacks and the character
of Sayer is based closely onsex. So the name that Leonard spells
out on the Ouija board isGerman poet Rainer Maria Ryleke.
And the poem that Dr. Sayerquotes in the place is called the
Panther. And known to be veryprivate and reserved person on film
(23:53):
sets. Robert De Niroacknowledged in interviews that Robin
Williams was one of his veryfew co stars whom he loved interacting
with and joking with when thecamera wasn't rolling. And De Niro
said that Williams reallyhelped him be at ease during filming,
as the two knew, as the twowere known to have lots of fun with
each other off camera. Anddespite this, De Niro also praised
Williams as a very focused andprofessional actor as well.
(24:16):
I heard Robert Williams hasthat effect on a lot of people.
Yeah, you rarely hear peopleever talking about if ever. The rock
on which Leonard stands isnamed Killy Rock. It is in Edgewater
Park, a small waterfrontcommunity in the Bronx, New York.
I like that bit where he's just.
He's like, come back. He'slike, no, I'm free, Mumby Rock.
(24:36):
That's what it looks like tobe alive.
And then this one wassurprising. Robert De Niro turned
down the role of Harry Lime inHome Alone, which also featured John
Hurd obviously as the dad. Andit was to do this movie instead.
His good friend and frequentco star Joe Pesci was instead given
the role in Home Alone. Andthat proves to be the highest comedy
film of all time and was stillthe number one box office hit by
(24:59):
the time this movie wasreleased in theaters. And Diderot
praise. Can that be right? Washomolone 89? I thought that was 90.
I think it was 90.
Wow. So it must have becomethe highest comedy quite quick.
Oh, well, it would have beenChristmas 89, wouldn't it?
Ah, that makes sense. Yeah.Yeah. So De Niro praised Pesci as
a better choice for the roleanyway and. Okay, one more. I lied.
One more. De Niro almostworked with Penny Marshall in Big
(25:22):
and he was initially penciledin for the lead role by Marshall
for it, but the studio didn'twant him as the lead for a comedy.
So De Niro eventually left theproject. And Marshall still wanted
to work with him, however, andchose him for the lead role here.
And I'm sure read another oneabout her wanting Bill Murray, but
then thinking, no, it'd be toomuch of a comedy, so they went for
De Niro. So there you go, somefacts of the day.
(25:43):
Okay, thank you, Paul. Thattakes us on to hate it or rate it.
So I guess I'll go first sinceit was my choice. I enjoyed this
movie, although it didn't makeme feel very good. The way it made
me feel was impressive, if youknow what I mean. There was points
where it's like, I was reallyhappy, it was really joyous, but
it also made me cry.
(26:03):
It's a roller coaster.
It's a roller coaster motion.But I thought it was very well put
together. It was impactful.Years ago when I saw it, it was pretty
much the same now. It's beenso much time since I've seen it.
And there were certain parts Iremembered, certain parts I'd completely
forgotten. So it was parts ofit. Like watching it all over again.
You say you were only youngwhen you watched it.
Yeah, I was probably like a teenager.
Okay.
And it was just one of those.Well, you didn't have the Internet
back then, so it was on. And Iremember it. Yeah, I remember what
(26:24):
it was called because I lookedat. I remember looking at the TV
Guide. What was that filmcalled? Awakening.
You had a TV Guide?
Never. I remembered that'sgone in there because certain scenes
were just ingrained in mybrain. Like when he couldn't go for
a walk and still made me thinkand made Me appreciate being alive,
been able to go for a walk andmaybe want to do more things, talk
to people and meet friendsand, you know, do things. So, yeah,
I'm going to give it. I'mgoing to give it 8.9 because overall
(26:46):
it did make me sad. I really.I'm glad I've watched it. I think
more people should watch it.Just appreciate being a human being.
Definitely gives you thatreaction, doesn't it?
Yeah.
Especially if you've notexperienced that kind of trauma,
I guess.
Let's go to you, Paul. What doyou think?
Same as you. Emotional rollercoaster. Well put together because
it had the sweet moments andit had the dramatic moments. The
(27:07):
biggest thing for me was, sameas you coming away from it going,
wow, what am I worrying aboutwith all the deaf stuff? I worry
about when you could betrapped in your own body like these
people are. But seeing the joywhen they did have the awakening
scenes, hard. I like the wayDe Niro played it. You feel very
invested with him. You can seewhy it was Oscar nominated again.
(27:29):
Surprised he didn't want, tobe honest. It must have been something
else to knock him out of therunning for that one.
Oscars get it wrong quite abit though.
Just some people's opinion.
This true. So, yeah, veryemotional film. But I liked little
scenes where I like the bitwhere they talked about visual rhythm
and the lady would get to theend of the floor and because the
(27:50):
squares stopped.
Took him a while to work outwhat it was. He's like with the table
out of the way. Yeah, she'sstill not moving.
I think she was going for thewater machine. And then they filled
in the square.
That was good.
She walked. Actually. She wasgoing to the window just.
To see the outside worldbecause we.
Often don't know what peopleare thinking. Yeah. I can't really
say much more that I alreadysaid in the rest of it all. I just
(28:11):
found it very, very inspiringbecause I have a tendency. I have
a very introvert side. I havea tendency of, oh, that's a bit dangerous.
I don't want to do that. Oh,I'm not going to go there.
Saying no to a lot of things.
Yeah. Yeah. So I'm watchingRobin Williams character going, yeah,
should I be doing more? Am Itrapping myself? Should I be more
awakened? So I enjoyed it.Good movie. Never heard of it. What
(28:32):
am I going to give it? That'swhat you're going to ask me because
of the way it made me kind ofinspired. I'm gonna give it an eight.
I Think. I mean, I onlywatched it last night. Confession.
But today I'm fresh. It'sfresh in my head and I'm still thinking
about some of the. The stuff.Thinking. Yeah, I take that for granted.
I take this for granted. Ineed to appreciate that more.
What if you've done. If therewas an emergency last night and you
(28:53):
didn't get time to watch themovie and you let us both down, I'd
never.
I'd never let you down, Aaron.What kind of a movie?
A power cut.
What kind of emergency? Apower cut. What have you done?
I don't know. I'm panickinglate to watch this movie, Darren,
Picking holes in your approach?
I was living life on the edge.
It's like you're not investedat all.
(29:14):
That's him living life on the edge.
It was the only time I couldfit it in.
All right, that's hilarious.Okay, you give it an 8. I'm gonna
cautiously move the haterorator gun across over to Darren
because he hasn't said muchand usually this is bad when he goes
quiet.
I know.
I was just ill over theweekend, so I didn't get as much.
Okay. Darren, what did youmake of this film?
They hated it.
(29:35):
I kind of felt that was coming.
I was waiting for that bombshell.
Yeah, she hated it.
You must have took somethinggood. I think.
I think it took a openingscenes. Took a while to get going.
Those kids were annoying. Andthen the teacher. There was just
some stuff done, likefilmmaking techniques I didn't like.
Like at one point she'swriting in her like mark book and
then she runs her finger downlooking for the. The gap. I said,
(29:56):
we don't do that. We just scanto where it is. And then she runs
another finger, likehorizontally to the name. It's like
no one does that. It's like,oh, there's a gap. Oh, it's that
guy. What the hell's his bookthat might.
Have done in the 60s, youknow, lame.
And then. And then it kind ofjumps. So you don't really care for
this Leonard guy because youdon't see him as a kid enough. I
mean, they could have had thatgo on, I think for like 30 minutes
(30:18):
or so. And it really gotinvested in these kids relationship
and the deterioration andstuff. But then it jumps. And I don't
really care about these.
Adults because, yeah, I don'tknow the character.
I haven't got theirpersonality or anything. And not
that fast. And then my mainthing is this whole kind of awakening
and feeling good. I Think theywere miscast. I think you should
switch them. I think RobinWilliams would have been better as
(30:40):
a Leonard character and RobertDe Niro would have been better as
a socially awkward doctorbecause there's a couple of scenes
that don't really land thatwell, particularly when Leonard is
like, oh, my God, these peopledon't understand how great life is.
But it's De Niro saying that,and it doesn't really fill me with,
like, that sense of joy.Whereas if Robin Williams was doing
See that? And he was like, oh,my God, life is amazing. Drinking
(31:02):
coffee is amazing. Apples areamazing. Sunsets are amazing.
Yeah.
And full Robin Williams flow.
I. I'd get really pulled intothat. But even then, Robin Williams
is then trying to convincepeople to give them money. It's a
really lame presentation. AndI'm just like. And she passes him
the note. Like, less science,but it's really dry. Then they're
like, oh, we're going to giveyou all the money. I was like, is
(31:23):
that really how dry it waswhen you just move. If I up, you
know, make it a speech. Like,it really didn't.
Like a Braveheart kind of speech.
Yeah. Like, get me going. Butthen I was just, you know, like,
I was saying, like,heartbroken that places like this
exist, people are abandoned,and then the real horror is this
idea that they were going togo back into that world. And I just
(31:44):
think there's one horror whereyou've been kind of locked in and
you've just been witnessingyour life pass by, then you get a
break for freedom, and then,you know, you're going back in, and
that's it. And, yeah, I justthought it was heartbreaking, and
I didn't feel. I am absolutely100 grateful for everything that's
in my life. My life is. It'swonderful. So, yeah, I felt. I just
(32:07):
felt. I felt sad. And by the.The filmmaking for me wasn't. Wasn't
kind of bright or energetic or.
I can. I can get that. Yeah.
Yeah.
But you have a differentperspective from. Yeah, so.
No, absolutely. But I'msurprised at how. How extreme our.
Our differences of opinionare. And it may have been just because,
you know, I was ill over theweekend and I didn't test for Kobe,
(32:29):
but, you know, my kid had Covid.
This is a weird one, becauseit. I thought it made me feel sad.
I was quite pleased how itmade me feel sad, because the overall
results, I got it.
But I love the fact you guysgot so much from it, and I don't,
you know, it's just. For me,it's a bit of a dated 1990 movie
that didn't kind of land.
I mean, visually as well.There's not a lot of color or which
(32:50):
is that environment, isn't it?But it's not visually satisfying
as a film. It's very muchabout the performance of.
Yeah. And you've got a reallytalented, rich cast around him. And
they will. Don't really get todo that much stuff. And I didn't
even believe the mainrelationship. I was like, those guys
don't have chemistry. They'resettling because they work in the
(33:11):
same field and they admireeach other. It's not like one of
them tried bowling and fellover. And then he started laughing
so much. And then they gotmarried. I just was.
If you haven't listened to ourlast episode, you need to check that
out right now. Yeah, I.
There was no meet cute. Therewas just no chemistry. It was just,
oh, do you want to go forcoffee? Yeah. Okay. Why? Just because
you're there. So. I think it'swonderful. I think it's wonderfully
(33:33):
based on the true story. Thenwe. The other takeaway I have is
that, you know, fresh eyes.And it does. It made me want to be
a better teacher. I'm a prettyfreaking fantastic teacher.
You got the fans teaching students.
They're fans.
Yeah. Yeah. But it did. Itmade me step back and just be like,
what aren't I seeing? Like, ifI came in with fresh eyes, what can
(33:55):
we do differently? How can wemix things up? And I actually have
started doing that in terms ofthe way they submit work with mixing
up some different options.
Because of this movie.
Yeah.
How can we clean our glasses?
That's pretty powerful.
Yeah. Just.
But you still said you stickuntil you. You hated this movie.
Yeah. Yeah. I. I felt boredall the time and I was just like,
(34:17):
oh, this is this. And. And youknew. I knew it was going to end
badly. I was like, that he'sgoing to go back into this. This
isn't it.
That would took me right off guard.
Yeah. It's gonna disappear. SoI just wish. Yeah. I think it'd be
interesting if they switchroles. Would have been good if you
had more chemistry with theromantic kind of relationship. Yeah.
It's just kind ofheartbreaking that this happens.
And I don't know how we treatpeople with similar conditions now,
(34:39):
but I freaking hope it's. It's.
There's no gardens out there still.
But it's also. It's kind ofthe way we infantilize the Elderly
as well. And I think that wecan all even. I can be like, if I'm
in a hurry and there's like anelderly person being too slow in
the supermarket, I can catchmyself and be like, oh, but you.
(35:00):
I always think that's gonna beme one day.
Yeah.
So what are you gonna give out?
10 one.
What?
Yeah.
What even less than Minecraft?
Yeah.
Even though we've had thisvery deep discussion built off the
fact that we watch this filmbecause you got more.
Out of this than you gotMinecraft, but you've given it less
than Minecraft.
Yeah.
Sticking to it.
(35:21):
I also think it was alwaysgoing to be a one. But then it's
also interesting that that'sthe most different our scores have
been.
Yeah.
Wowzers. I am in shock.
It's not the film that made mefeel those things. It's the story.
It's the original story. It's.It's that that happened. Like I could
have watched it. I could haveread an article on that and it would
have given me the samefeeling. Because the characters.
Matt didn't particularly winme over. Leonard didn't particularly
(35:43):
win me over. Like when De Nirosmiles, I just think of Cape Fear.
Like he's not charming, youknow? And his relationship with the
woman I thought was. Wasweird. I didn't think they had chemistry
either. I don't see what shewould have seen in him. Like I just
didn't get it.
Which is what they used to sayto John Hurd in Big. I don't get
(36:03):
it.
Yeah.
What don't you get?
You give it eight.
Yeah, I'll stick with thatjust because of the way it made me
feel.
Okay, let's see where it landsin the league going down. It puts
it in 27th out of 39, so itputs it just behind Snatch. So snatch
is on 18.2. So awakens on70.9. And crazy stupid love was 17.5.
(36:26):
As well as leave the worldbehind is always 70.5.
That's not too bad though.That's in pretty good company.
Yeah, it is a pretty good company.
That. That's the most diverseyou both had though, because what
was your 8.9?
Almost one. Yeah.
Wow.
There you go. That's whatmakes the world go round.
That's movies, we're prettyboring if we.
All loved every movie or hateevery movie the same. So I'm okay
with that.
I feel bad cuz I'm the one whowas on him. Like I didn't like Hot
(36:48):
Shots. You loved Hot Shots.And I didn't love it.
I didn't love it.
Okay.
But it was. I mean, it's in 36out of 39. So it's.
I think I'm probably goingthrough something. I probably shouldn't
have given up sniffing glue.
Now that's. That's for a Tshirt right there. Our merchandise
stand is going to be amazing.
Okay, thanks, gentlemen.
(37:08):
I'm going to get hate mail,aren't I?
We'll find out. I'll let you know.
You're going to fabricate someone?
Yeah, I hide it from him and Ifabricate it for you.
Yeah, I don't want to know.
Let's move into part three,which is the listener lounge. So
in part three, we have thelobby where we share your comments,
(37:31):
your quest questions and yourmessages. And then we have the question
of the week and we round offwith next week's movies. There's
no question of the week thisweek because it was questions from
the Bourne Identity, whichonly goes out tomorrow as we're recording
this. Okay, so we'll have towait. So if you do want to get in
touch with us, you can emailus. Helloviewiesinanutshell.com youm
can now leave us a voicemail.So if you go to movies in a shell
(37:52):
dot com, if you're on thedesktop or the website, there is
a button that will pop up onthe side or the bottom which will
say leave voicemail. So youcan send us a message. You can just
record it straight into yourphone and we'll read some that.
On the voicemail or fan mail.
Listen to mail, listen tomail. Darren mail.
Darren mail.
Yeah. If you, if you hateDarren, you want to send him a message,
go for it. If you hate hisscores, if you think his scores are
wrong or ours, send us amessage. If you just want to give
(38:15):
us a shout out or anythinglike that, we'll read them out.
We like your stories too.
You actually play them if youwere sending them all in? We'll play
it on the show. Yeah.
Okay, cool.
Okay. Your voice is. Oh. Inother news, which was just. I don't
know if it was alreadyannounced, but there's gonna be a
Spaceballs too.
Yes. Mel brooks stilldirecting 96 or something.
Crazy.
It's crazy with Bill Pullman'sson is going to be in it.
(38:37):
And Bill's back as well.
But he's in it as well.
I didn't realize BillPullman's son was Lewis Pullman.
He's one of the pilots in TopTop Gun. Maverick.
Is he?
Yeah.
Oh, I must have missed that.
Yeah.
I didn't realize it until itsaid about Hotshots and Lewis, Pullman's
gonna be. And I'm like, wait aminute, I've seen him before.
So that's. Could be interesting.
Yeah.
This could be another cashgrab. Could be another sequel for
(39:00):
sequel's sake to make some money.
Which. What Spaceballs1actually took the piss out of in
Spaceballs1.
Yeah.
So we made the sequel theQuest for More Money or something.
Yeah.
So we may need to doSpaceballs and then if it's in the
cinema, it might just be astraight to.
No, I think it's going cinema wide.
Cool. We may need to have acinema trip also. We've always also
(39:21):
started thinking aboutChristmas and what we're gonna do
at Christmas.
Where does this year go?
The schedules, the cinema tripthat will be in. In December.
We were thinking that therewasn't many Christmas films coming
up when we were chatting aboutit, weren't we?
So the. The cinema, theAlhambra is going to let us know
when they've decided whatChristmas films are going to show.
Because they normally showsome classics, don't they?
Do they? Do. So we'll put outthe socials, we'll ask you guys,
(39:41):
let you pick, and then we'llall go.
I'm voting. We'll pickChristmas Carol because let's face
it, it's amazing.
Let's hope they show it. Okay,so that takes us on to this week's
question of the Week, which Iinitially, I was thinking, what's
the saddest movie you've everseen? No, no, no, let's not do that.
Let's what? What's thehappiest movie you've ever seen?
Are you going the other way?
Yeah, go the other way. I'llflip on his head. I didn't want any
(40:02):
more doom and gloom.
The one that's giving me themost joy.
I haven't actually thought ofthis myself, but I thought it was.
I thought I'd flip it on hishead. Because you love a good, happy
film. You love your rom coms.I know.
I'm going through them now.Well, most rom coms have a nice upbeat
ending, don't they?
Yeah.
So nearly every rom com I'veseen, I think Hugh Hugo's got quite
(40:23):
an uplifting. I'm going towatch the musical. So I'm going to
say 13 going on 30.
That's.
That's an upbeat and Slidingdoors. That's kind of a bittersweet.
But uplifting thing. I likethat one.
You got any down?
No, not really. I mean, theone that just makes me happy is an
old Disney film calledBlackbeard's Ghost. It's got Peter
Youssef in it and I just laughlike crazy. It's by the same team
(40:47):
at the Mary Poppins, but it'snowhere near as kind of popular or
well known. But it's DeanJones as a straight man and Peter
Youssanov as a drunken ghost pirate.
That's the question of theweeks. What is the happiest movie
you've ever seen? It can bewhat's made you laugh the most or
what makes you feel the best.Anything like that.
Oh, Palm Springs.
(41:07):
Palm Springs is a good one.Yep. Didn't make Darren feel quite
the same, but that's Darrenfor you.
The life of pie is good.
Oh, life of pie.
Yes.
That's a good one.
That's the question of theweek. If you can, you can email us
hello Movies in a nutshell dotcom. Or you can message us through
our socials. The links are inthe show notes. So if you want to
help us when we do want youwant to help us, the easiest, quickest
way you can do is to share theshow. Tell, spread the word, send
(41:29):
them people a link, dosomething on social media, share
one of our posts. If you canthink of just one person who would
like this podcast, then sendthem a link. Every app on a platform's
got a share button. Or alsojust give us a rating and a review
in whatever platform. What youlistening? Apple, podcasts, Spotify.
If there's an option to giveit a rating review, please do so
or it all helps us and it'spretty quick and easy. Okay, so that
(41:52):
takes us on to next week'smovie. This is Darren, what we're
going for.
Okay. I'm going to take a riskbecause I want to. I want to raise
our very spirits after thelast two movies that we've seen.
Yes, take a gamble on a moviethat as a kid I really, really liked
and thought was funny. But Iknow from the glory of the Internet
that a lot of people on thismovie, it is actually don't even
(42:12):
know what year it came out,but it's Hudson Hawk with. That's
a good sound.
That is.
I think Danny Ayala yellow isin it.
So I've never seen HudsonHawk, but I've always wanted to.
Another movie that I've seenthat you have.
There's a few. There's a few.
Love it.
Yeah, you won't beat me on romcoms, but.
Yeah, well, yeah, I rememberwatching that when I was a lot younger.
(42:35):
I've seen it a few times andI'm. I don't know if it's gonna age
well or what is it like?
Comedy, action?
I can't remember the main.
I think he did it.
It's half comedy, isn't it?
Yeah, it is. It's a comedy.
It's like an action comedy.
I feel like it's one that Ialways felt like I was missing because
it was in a lethal.
I don't want to speculatebecause I.
Might get it wrong, but it's 1991.
(42:55):
Yeah. I thought it was early90s. Yeah.
One hour, 39 minutes.
Excellent. What's it on?
It's on Netflix.
Cool. I'm looking forward tothat. I hope I like it.
I hope you both do. By thesounds of it, our track.
Record of this isn't verygood, but.
It'S a mixed bag.
Oh, yeah. Richard E. Grant'sin it.
Yes.
And James Coburn and Sandra.Actually, one of the writers is Steven
(43:16):
d', Souza, who wrote on DieHard, I think.
Yeah, that's right.
Interesting. There we go.Looking forward to that. So next
week's movie is Hudson Hawk.Love it. Okay, thanks for listening,
guys. This episode isofficially over. This is Mark, say
goodbye.
This is Darren saying goodbyefor now.
I'm sorry if you're right, Iwould agree with you.
That works.
Hello and welcome to Movies ina Nutshell with me, Marc Farquhar,
myself, Darren.
Horn and I, Paul Day.
We help you spend less timebrowsing and more time watching.
If you've seen the movie,we'll reveal what you might have
missed.
If you haven't, we'll give youa quick spoiler free breakdown.
We've got behind the scenestrivia including Paul's facts of
the day, host ratings.
And a legend league table,plus your.
Chance to choose a movie.
(00:33):
So grab some popcorn and let'sjump into this week's movie. Okay,
Here we go. Awakenings 1990.This was my choice. So we are in
part one, which is thenutshell in which we will break the
movie down spoiler free tohelp you decide if it's your kind
of movie. So in a nutshell,how do we break this movie down?
(00:54):
It's about a doctor who endsup in a role that he didn't expect
and wouldn't want because itdid. It means dealing with patients
and he's a research focused ofdoctor who doesn't have great social
skills. He gets allocated to award which is known as the garden
because he did just keepwatering and feeding these people
because they're semi comatose.And then it's. He's.
(01:15):
These people have been writtenoff basically, haven't they?
Written off by society. Andthen it's his story of how he leans
into that role and then triesdifferent solutions to try and help
these people.
And then through hisexperimentations he finds how it
helped them differently. Andit's in the character of the doctor
himself. He's quite anintroverted person in his personal
life. So it's very much allabout the work. And he likes plants
(01:36):
and I just thought he likesplants and things. And it's called
the garden. I only justconnected that now. But yeah, so
it's about his kind of journeywith these patients as well. So the
interactions he has and. Andthe staff as well in the actual institution.
Yeah, Hospital.
Yeah.
It's definitely about the. Thebeauty of the human condition, I
think, good and bad and thebig headline.
(01:57):
For me, it's one of thosefilms that makes you feel very privileged
without a doubt. Yeah.Privilege to have things that you
don't think about.
All the things that you takefor granted.
All the things you take for granted.
Like a glance or a smile or ashared silence.
Yeah.
Everything has lots of meaningbut you just sort of take it for
granted.
And at the end of the dayeveryone has problems of some degree
but this sort of makes you go,oh, my problems pale in comparison
(02:20):
to someone who maybe has someof these problems, whether that's
family members or the personactually suffering from these things
themselves. So yeah, the humancondition, like you say, good overview
of it.
Hard to think about otherfilms that it's like though. I mean
obviously you've got oneflavor of the Cuckoo's Nest to a
little extent.
I've never seen that, but Iwrote that down because I figured
it would be similar sort offilm. I'm going to watch it now.
(02:42):
I've seen this just to see. Ialso put Robin Williams did a few
drama sort of films. Like. Ihaven't seen some of them. Patch
Adams, things like that.
Yeah, sure.
I guess that's these maybesort of films as well. When Dreams
May Come. I haven't seen thatone either. But he did like a few
more dramatic roles, didn'the, over his course. Course of his
career? Well, he did lots ofdifferent things but he had sort
of feel good slash drama. GoodWill Hunting, I suppose as well.
(03:05):
Yeah, it's a drama. So itmeans Robin Williams has to sit on
a bench at some point.
Yeah, that's a good point. Ialso put maybe Hospital Brain. I
haven't seen Rayman either, but.
You haven't seen Rayman.
No.
That's a small tally in thelist of films I've seen. You have.
I know.
Wow.
I've got them stacked already.Watch. I just haven't seen them yet.
(03:25):
But I'm imagine because itcame up after I'd finished this one
on Amazon prime saying maybewatch Romance or maybe that's one.
And I also got some Housevibes. I watched a lot of. I watched
House when he was trying tofigure it out and things there was.
That's what House. House isbasically. If you've not seen. It's
almost like Sherlock Holmesbut medical. So. So he tries to figure
out how to fix people. What's.He's a diagnostician.
(03:48):
Yes.
In the room, so boardcertified. Oh yeah, of course. He's
got attitude. Is that man. Yeah.
It's always Lupus.
This movie will appreciate.Appreciate you just being alive.
Yeah.
A life just been able toexperience things and have memories
and well, emotions.
I think I. I don't tend towatch drama because there's enough
drama in my own life. But whatdrama does really well is show it
(04:12):
allows you to look through akeyhole, another way of living or
someone else's story. And yes,fun to watch action movies or war
films even if they're based ontrue story. You would get an insight
into stuff, but when it's adrama, it's like, wow. Other. Other
people suffer. Like otherpeople go through a lot.
I think every once in a whileyou need to watch a movie like this.
And we haven't mentioned yetthat this is based on real events.
(04:32):
It is based on a real. Realevents in a book like this.
1969.
Yeah.
And I think it was written by.Well, there's. The book is written
by Oliver Sachs, MD.
That's whose kind of basedRobin Williams is based on. Yeah.
Because the value of lifeisn't measured in length. It's the
depth. It's like theexperiences, memory, connections
with people.
I put human spirit and simple things.
(04:55):
All of that into spotlight.Basically, he's an uncle. He uses
unconventional methods to tryand get through these people because
no one else has been able toget through to them.
No. And at one point they arelooking at it and realizing, oh,
this has just been leftuntouched. So the character going
into this environment is whatkind of propels the narrative forward
for the film.
I'm not entirely sure it wasunconventional. I think he just tried
(05:16):
methods and people had givenup for like decades and just hadn't
tried anything.
They just accepted them to thefate. And. Yeah.
And he's worth trying. Let'stry finding a course, try fixing.
Let's find out what. What thisis as.
Again, I've started likewriting notes. I used to just wing
it, but now I've startedwriting notes about.
So proud.
So as it.
You're a nerd. Yeah, totally.
Okay. As the story unfolds, itexplores themes of compassion, perseverance,
(05:42):
and the question of what doesit truly mean to be alive, like in
the present world?
Yeah. And also, what's theword I'm looking for? Like inspiring
other people. Because he'sapproaching fresh eyes, starts to
inspire other people.
That's true.
And you know, I work in theteaching profession and there's.
There's times, there's monthswhen that can be a real grind. And
even like in recent times,you. Someone's joined the team who's
(06:04):
just got energy and it's likea ray of.
Inspiration is kind of infection.
And you're like, yeah, just. Ican try new techniques, I can try
new strategies. Just get ourenergy up again. You know, it's amazing
when those people join your workplace.
And sometimes you need thatouter perspective almost to. To make
you go, oh, why? You triedthat outside the box.
(06:24):
Yeah. Or flipping something onits head and go, why not try this
way?
Like, I Said it's that he saysin the film I'm not very good with
people. But then in the filmyou sort of see him working with
all these people because he'sa very compassionate character. And
then seeing how his characteract goes through as well.
Yeah.
Again, inspirational. Both himgoing into the place, but then the
inspiration he gets from thepatients as well. So it's kind of
(06:47):
that two way thing. He'sbringing inspiration with his new
ideas and they're giving himinspiration just by what happens
in the film.
Okay, let's move into parttwo, which is the unboxing located
in spoiler territory. So fromthis point forward, there will be
spoilers. So if we've piquedyour interest and you feel like you
(07:08):
want to go watch Awakenings,feel free to go and do so now, then
come back because there willbe spoilers from this point forward.
So in the unboxing we havewhat did you miss? Where we will
highlight things you may havemissed. Even if you've seen the movie
many times. Paul will give ushis amazing facts of the day and
we round off with Hate it orRate it where we each give our opinion
and a score out of 10 and seewhere it lands on the Legend League.
(07:28):
What did we miss inAwakenings? I'll go to you first,
Darren. The horn section.
This is the horn section.
I think how horrible theseplaces were and how in 1969 how he
treated other human beings.I'm not sure you would miss it, but
we miss it in a way becauseit's kind of almost like a sanitized
version. And it's like, yeah,we call this place the Garden. It's
(07:48):
sweet and we keep them fed.
And water sugar coating it.
Sugarcoat in it, really. And Ithink it's interesting that when
Leonard can speak, I'm curiousto think about the things they witnessed
that he could have called himout on. He could have been like,
wait, you did this to me whileI was in that state. Or you didn't
do anything, or you didn't doanything. Or like I really wanted
him to say when he meets themain woman who kind of is helping
(08:09):
Robin Williams, his character,him to be like, oh, I appreciate
that you are nice to me. Andeven just having that line would
have been good because itwould have suggested that some of
the other people aren't nice.
I think initially though,they're just so happy to be alive.
Yeah.
That just takes precedent ofeverything. They just want to live
and just experience things.
Yeah. And because there's abit Where I think there's two nurses
who have checked out. They'relike, oh, we've given their drugs
(08:30):
and then they're just watchinga soap opera.
Yeah, yeah.
I think that's kind of thereality of it. And I think the thing
that they don't really makeclear is that they've almost got
like, locked in syndrome.Like, they're kind of aware of what's
going on. And he went, he goesand asks Max Bonsai do. And he's
like, oh, we know they're not.They're not awake in there. And he's.
How do you know? He's like,because it would be unthinkable if
(08:52):
they are so. Well, so you'lljust say, no, that can't be true
because it's unthinkable. Andit makes me. I remember that fact
that, you know, scientists andthe medical profession used to think
the babies couldn't feel pain,so they would just operate on them
with no anesthetic and stuff.
Just think, I always thinkthat, like, what will we know tomorrow?
The stuff that we used tobelieve that we now know is not good.
(09:13):
And it's like, what do webelieve now still? That one day someone's
going to look back and belike, wow, did they really think
that?
Like back in the 50s whendoctors used to prescribe smoking
cigarettes.
Yeah, exactly. And now they'relike, yeah, not so good.
Back in the days before research.
Yeah, research, me search. Whoneeds that?
But that's. That's really the.My kind of takeaway from it. Just
(09:33):
this. Yeah, it was a slightlykind of standardized view of it and
I think it would be easy toskip over just what. How hellish
I think these places couldhave been at that time period.
For me, that hit home probablythe most was, we're in spoiler zone,
aren't we?
Yeah, you never know where weare. You are.
I know we are. But I like todouble check before I blurt out like
a massive spoiler in. In thefilm. Obviously, he had. They have
(09:58):
the awakening and you start tosee them as actual characters and.
People and what kind of peoplethey were.
People they were and realizingthey've lost all this time and then
the sad downturn of the film,which I wasn't expecting because,
you know, I'm prepared for myhappy. No, you know, is where they
start.
To think about you.
I found that turn really harshto cope with, where it's like, no,
(10:19):
no, they can't go back. Andthen someone says a line in the film
around how well isn't that howall life works. We all have this
start and we have this end andthere's these bits in the middle
and it's just making the mostof the bits in the middle or something
like that. How we can justmaximize the most. It really is a
film that makes you feelinspired and privileged with the
(10:39):
human spirit stuff.
But also down to money. Imean, obviously it's set in America,
so it's a whole financialthing. And I just think as a society
we should be judged by how wetreat the most vulnerable. And the
fact that they don't have likean amazing outdoor space or garden
to sit in or the fact that.
Tv, it's called the garden,they don't have a garden.
(11:00):
Exactly. And the TVs kind ofdoing that, not focusing and yeah,
the guy prefers it when it'sflickering. Yeah. Vertically. And
it's like you can't get like acolor TV or whatever. You can't.
This is horrendous.
That's what I'm saying. Butagain, they've written these people
off so they don't think it'sworth spending any money on these
things. They don't think it'sgonna make any difference.
But you talk about money aswell. There's the scene where the.
It's like, how much do you puta price on? Hum, on your human experience.
(11:22):
Yeah.
And it's like, well thisdrug's working with this guy. We
need to give it to everyone.And he's like, well how much? And
he says, write down somewhere.But he says, how much?
He said x12000.
And he's like, yeah, well wecan do that. And you think about
that. That's someone's seeinghow at that point in the film that
they thought this had fixedhim or you know, improved his circumstances
so much. They're like, no, westill can't do it. And then all the
(11:44):
staff start putting in their checks.
It was such a reflection onthe society at that time. And even
now someone's life haschanged, but they're still asking
questions about money.
But also I saw that as anindictment on the system because
it was like, well, thesenurses and janitors and stuff are
putting in money to providehealth care that would have life
changing implications. And youknow, I'm in a teaching profession
(12:06):
as you know, and there's a lotof teachers who have to do that.
And you know, I love teachingand I would kind of complain about
the teenagers I teach a lotbut you know, I get to teach film
and, and you know, they makeamazing Stuff sometimes. And you
see them grow and it's. It's.Yeah, it's excellent seeing them
develop a love of educationand progress. But again, teachers
spend their own money on a lotof this.
(12:26):
They shouldn't have to.
No. You know, then he's got togo and pitch. Who is it that they.
The directors or the.Whatever. The. Yeah.
And then they all kind of signchecks. But the government should
be funding this stuff. It's horrendous.
But that was a bit. It's like,well, what's the bottom line? I'm
thinking, well, never mind thebottom line. You've just discovered
that this might change allthese people's lives. And it's amazing.
I think that everything's so.The film we reviewed last week, everything's
(12:48):
about money. Everything'sabout making this money thing. It's
like, well, where's the humanexperience in all this? And I know
the world's got to revolvesomehow and we maybe need.
It always has revolved aroundmoney, but more so now than ever.
But when it gets to that thingwhere it's like, well, you've seen.
It's just changed this guyfrom what, almost a coma pretty much.
And a. To actually function inhuman being. Yeah. Powerful, powerful
(13:11):
film in terms of that kind ofmessage throughout it.
Honestly, I think the otherthing is the warning. How easy it
is to get jaded in your joband just take things for granted
and then to dehumanize peopleand just be like, absolutely, I'm
not gonna. I'm just gonna getthrough the day and put myself first
and. Yeah, but Bobby Williamsis really good at doing that kind
(13:32):
of innocent, kind of fairytale dreamer kind of character.
Very laid back role for him.This was very holding back, very
reserved compared to what weused to.
Yes, I have thoughts on that.When it gets to our opinion.
Okay, okay. What? Something Idon't know if anyone picked up on
is how he also had anawakening because he doesn't do anything.
(13:54):
He goes home, he's nothing. Bythe end of the film he goes, yes,
I will go on a date with you.Yes, I will do this. He starts opening
up to things because he'srealized he's not preciating life.
He's just walk going throughthe motions and just doing the same
thing.
That also had Good WillHunting vibes for me. I was going
to see about the girl.
Is that woman the voice ofMarge Simpson?
Correct?
Julie Kavan pissing on your.
(14:14):
Sorry, I know.
I was saving that one.
I think everyone picked up onthat straight away.
I didn't.
Did you?
No, not at all.
Okay. So as you startedtalking, I was like, is that Marge
Simpson?
That would have been.
Sorry for.
Just pissed all over my thing.No, that's fine.
I can edit that bit out if you want.
No, no, no, it's fine.
I just figured it was anactress doing a voice, not her actual
voice.
(14:34):
She was picked because of hervoice. And that's. That's it.
But don't forget, the Simpsonsstarted, what.
1989, I think it was. Already started.
Just about started at thatpoint. But that's quite a sweet relationship
between them two because thatsort of develops over the film as
well. Leonard says, oh, shelikes you, basically. You know, you're
a kind man.
(14:54):
And he may have quit. He wasalmost gonna quit. And she walks
out and she says, I like yourversion better.
Yeah. That gives him justenough to keep going.
But isn't that true of most men?
We just need, like,encouragement, support, a pat on
the back.
Yeah. Just. You're doing okay.Keep going. Okay, thanks.
He was almost as pivotal ashim in that place, as that team,
(15:15):
I suppose.
Yeah, for sure.
That's what kept him going.
And also in winning over therest of the staff.
Yeah.
I have something I picked upon, which I don't. I definitely wouldn't
have picked up on this if Iwasn't a parent now. But there was,
like, some parenting childreferences. When he takes the group
on that trip, they're bored.Like, he takes you to the places
that he wants to go. He's notthinking, what would they want to
do? And there's later in thefilm, or maybe even early in the
(15:37):
film, where the woman visitingher son.
Yeah.
And she goes, you don't havechildren, do you? And he goes, if
you did, you'd know.
But also, it kind of hints atthe toxic kind of mother relationship
where she would rather he wasin that comatose state so she can
look after him almost likehe's a doll.
She want to become independent?
No. And, you know, we hear stories.
That's normal parenting, though.
(15:58):
Yeah. And it can be like, someparents will sabotage your kids.
Chances are going to unibecause they want them to stay close
to home or they don't wantthem to leave because it gets wrapped
up in your sense of identity.I think it can get wrapped up in
your sense of identity, beinga parent. And it's like leaving the
military or leaving, like, aprison. It's become.
Well, some people, all theyhave is parenting.
Yeah.
Once a child has left, flownthe nest. They've got nothing.
(16:18):
And they'll be like, what'syour greatest of achievement? Oh,
you know, having a child.It's. You haven't brought up a kid
who's cured cancer.
You could be a careercriminal. You proud of that?
Yeah.
Well, then that takes thekid's identity away because. Because
there's a bit with De Niro,he's doing his hair for the first
time because he's lost 30years of his life, hasn't he? So
he starts doing his own hairand. And she's like, what have you
done to your hair?
(16:39):
Yeah, these, like,conversations you would have, like
a little kid when he started,like, becoming himself and.
But that's him trying to forgehis new identity, isn't it? And she's
like, no, no, you know, you'restill my. My boy.
So this film was based onOliver Sacks.
Yeah.
Real life memoir, which adds abit of weight to the story. I had
to look it up. I did. I wasn'taware of it.
Which is also. I get why it'ssanitized, because, you know, the
(17:00):
bad guy isn't massively a badguy. He's just a bit of a pure crowd.
And it's got to manage thehospital and keep money. He's got
to balance the books. But I'mcurious if in the real, real story,
there were some people who aremuch darker in the way they kind
of ran things or the way they behaved.
Well, John Heard was the guyin question, the actor playing that
character. And Penny Marshalldirected it. And I'm almost like,
(17:23):
penny Marshall. Why do I knowthat name? I know it because she
directed one of my favoritechildhood films, which is slightly
problematic now, Darren, butlet's not go down the road. But a
film called Big with TomHanks. And John Heard is in that,
which.
Is interesting because thenshe's got two movies where adult
actors are playing children within.
That's true.
And she led both of them toOscar nominations.
(17:43):
I haven't seen Big film when Iwas a kid. I saw loads, but I wonder
why. It's problematic, but I'mthinking, yeah, the age. The age
gap.
Yeah.
Especially if that was theother way. Anyway, still. I'm sure
we will do that.
It's still a childhoodfavorite film of mine because he
had. He had the coolestapartment of all time.
Yeah. Great film. Every. Everychild. Every child's fantasy, that
(18:03):
film. Yeah.
But John Heard apparentlydidn't want to play it too much like
the character he played in big.
Okay.
So they changed it about Alittle bit. So, like you say, that
was my point. Maybe the reallife version was a little bit more
harsh, and the only reason hehad a bit more empathy was because
John Hurd didn't want to playthe same character as he did in Big.
I thought De Niro's acting wasgood in this. Like, the. The physical,
(18:25):
like, all the gestures and thetwitching, like, that took some.
Yeah, that's a masterclass inportraying, like, an illness or in
recovery as well. But there'salso the bit of sweet contrast between
initial joy of recovery, butalso the heartbreak of, like, decline,
I suppose.
Yeah. I found thatparticularly heartbreaking. Because
you thought. Well, I thoughtit was going to be the sort of movie
(18:45):
where they all got better.
But I also wonder, would someof them have said, don't let me go
back to that.
Yeah, I don't want to go backto that state.
Yeah. Well, a lot of themshowed signs of despair because of
how much time had passed.
Yeah.
Or they just wanted to. Theyjust want to go outside because they
were okay with the fact thatthey've lost a lot of life, but they
just wanted to get out and escape.
That's where Leonard wasfeeling like he's woke up from this
(19:09):
cage of himself, but now he'sbeen kept in his.
Own cage, but he's alsofeeling like, I'm fine, I'm okay.
Yeah.
He's like, can I just go down,have a coffee and just watch people?
But then obviously starts todecline again. And watching that
struggle back to the.
Decline it's portrayed, it'salmost like that is the point where
he declines because he's beentold no. Try and say yes as much
as possible. An emotionalroller coaster, that one.
(19:30):
I wrote a note about seeing,like, seeing things because there's
a lot of glasses cleaning.Lots of focus. Seeing. And she catches
the glasses, and he seessomething that they don't see well
after.
Every time he cleans hisglasses, something happens.
Yeah, yeah. And the fact thatthey've all got this reflex, and
he's the one who sees that,whereas no one else was looking for
(19:52):
it. And then at the end,obviously, he. He then has his awakening
by saying, let's go for a cupof coffee with Madge Simpson.
Yeah.
Sorry, Julie. Sorry.
But, yeah, not ashamed toadmit I cried twice in this film.
Oh, wow.
So the first one was when shesaw him. When she came in, saw him,
like, basically alive afterbeing a vegetable. That was quite.
(20:13):
The second one was when hejust wanted to go for a walk and
they wouldn't Let him.
Yeah, he gets all stressed.
That got me the years ago andwatched it and that got me now.
I had a few moments. I was struggling.
Yeah.
Particularly when they allstarted to go back to what they were
after having started declining again.
Yeah. You realize this wasonly going to be a temporary thing.
It's not sustainable. No, basically.
And that speech, when RobinWilliams does say about. It's. It's
(20:38):
life, and there's like a kindof, like you say, goodwill hunting
sort of vibe to whateverspeech he says at the end, which
is quite Hollywood, I suppose,as well. But it kind of hits you
in the fields with actuallyseeing where it all went. And again,
Robert, what's it called?Leonard, the character, you know,
he meets this girl and for aminute they. You think, oh, he's
met this girl and she's verynice with them. And you think, oh,
(21:00):
this is gonna be the romancebit of the film. But then obviously
he declines the next timethey're together and he's struggling
to get through it. And. And itwas nice, though, to see that she
still went and read to him.
She didn't give up on him.
She didn't give up on him. Andthere's the dance scene that was
very emotive as well.
Yeah. So, Yeah, I forgot about that.
Yeah. Yeah. Where she saw thewhole. And it's Tremors stop for
a little bit because he feelslike he's being held.
(21:21):
Tough one. Tough.
Tough.
It's a very sad film. It's asad film.
It's done in that sort oflight tone that you would expect
from the 90s and these sort ofdrama things. But, yeah, the underlying.
But the messages that you takeaway from it are probably the important
things with this one.
Yeah. It's alsounconventional. It doesn't have a
happy ending.
No.
Which is not what we used to.Certainly Spielberg wouldn't do this
(21:43):
film well.
Or maybe he would. But thereality. Because it's a based on
a true story.
Yeah.
Isn't it?
Okay, that takes us on toPaul's Facts of the day.
Backs of the day. Did you knowthat the person who plays the nurse
is actually Marge Simpson? Oh,oh, wait, wait. That one's already
been done. I was gonna mentionit. It's fun. It had six wins and
(22:07):
11 nominations. The AcademyAward nominations. It had three.
So Best Picture, Best Actor ina Leading Role for Robert De Niro
and Best Writing ScreenplayBased on Material from the book.
Did it win any?
No, they were all nominee ones.
Do you know what it lost out to?
No, I meant to that year.Yeah, it'd be interesting to know,
actually, because I can'timagine much being as dramatic as
(22:28):
De Niro is in that role.Anyway, onwards we go. Some more
facts of the day. Prior tofilming, the cast members portraying
the patient studied films ofDr. Oliver Sacks. Post I can't say
this word. Encephalitis, Isthat right? Encephalitis patients
and De Niro and Robin Williamsspent times with Sachs in the hospital
observing him and hispatients. So they did research to
(22:50):
get that follow for the movie.De Niro actually filmed a scene with
Lillian T. Who was the onlysurviving patient from the book.
And she was also said to havebeen the most outspoken patient in
the 1974 Yorkshire Televisiondocumentary about the patients, also
called Awakenings. So De Nirodid meet up with one of the actual
(23:10):
patients from him. De Nirowanted Shelley Winters to play his
mother. However, the studioinsisted that she read for the part
first and Winters refused todo so. So when she met the casting
director, she reportedly putboth her Oscars on his desk and said,
some people think I can act.
Ooh, egotistical biatch.
Bit of. Bit of ego in therethen. And as we already sort of alluded
(23:32):
to, it's. It's a nonfictionbook by Oliver Sacks and the character
of Sayer is based closely onsex. So the name that Leonard spells
out on the Ouija board isGerman poet Rainer Maria Ryleke.
And the poem that Dr. Sayerquotes in the place is called the
Panther. And known to be veryprivate and reserved person on film
(23:53):
sets. Robert De Niroacknowledged in interviews that Robin
Williams was one of his veryfew co stars whom he loved interacting
with and joking with when thecamera wasn't rolling. And De Niro
said that Williams reallyhelped him be at ease during filming,
as the two knew, as the twowere known to have lots of fun with
each other off camera. Anddespite this, De Niro also praised
Williams as a very focused andprofessional actor as well.
(24:16):
I heard Robert Williams hasthat effect on a lot of people.
Yeah, you rarely hear peopleever talking about if ever. The rock
on which Leonard stands isnamed Killy Rock. It is in Edgewater
Park, a small waterfrontcommunity in the Bronx, New York.
I like that bit where he's just.
He's like, come back. He'slike, no, I'm free, Mumby Rock.
(24:36):
That's what it looks like tobe alive.
And then this one wassurprising. Robert De Niro turned
down the role of Harry Lime inHome Alone, which also featured John
Hurd obviously as the dad. Andit was to do this movie instead.
His good friend and frequentco star Joe Pesci was instead given
the role in Home Alone. Andthat proves to be the highest comedy
film of all time and was stillthe number one box office hit by
(24:59):
the time this movie wasreleased in theaters. And Diderot
praise. Can that be right? Washomolone 89? I thought that was 90.
I think it was 90.
Wow. So it must have becomethe highest comedy quite quick.
Oh, well, it would have beenChristmas 89, wouldn't it?
Ah, that makes sense. Yeah.Yeah. So De Niro praised Pesci as
a better choice for the roleanyway and. Okay, one more. I lied.
One more. De Niro almostworked with Penny Marshall in Big
(25:22):
and he was initially penciledin for the lead role by Marshall
for it, but the studio didn'twant him as the lead for a comedy.
So De Niro eventually left theproject. And Marshall still wanted
to work with him, however, andchose him for the lead role here.
And I'm sure read another oneabout her wanting Bill Murray, but
then thinking, no, it'd be toomuch of a comedy, so they went for
De Niro. So there you go, somefacts of the day.
(25:43):
Okay, thank you, Paul. Thattakes us on to hate it or rate it.
So I guess I'll go first sinceit was my choice. I enjoyed this
movie, although it didn't makeme feel very good. The way it made
me feel was impressive, if youknow what I mean. There was points
where it's like, I was reallyhappy, it was really joyous, but
it also made me cry.
(26:03):
It's a roller coaster.
It's a roller coaster motion.But I thought it was very well put
together. It was impactful.Years ago when I saw it, it was pretty
much the same now. It's beenso much time since I've seen it.
And there were certain parts Iremembered, certain parts I'd completely
forgotten. So it was parts ofit. Like watching it all over again.
You say you were only youngwhen you watched it.
Yeah, I was probably like a teenager.
Okay.
And it was just one of those.Well, you didn't have the Internet
back then, so it was on. And Iremember it. Yeah, I remember what
(26:24):
it was called because I lookedat. I remember looking at the TV
Guide. What was that filmcalled? Awakening.
You had a TV Guide?
Never. I remembered that'sgone in there because certain scenes
were just ingrained in mybrain. Like when he couldn't go for
a walk and still made me thinkand made Me appreciate being alive,
been able to go for a walk andmaybe want to do more things, talk
to people and meet friendsand, you know, do things. So, yeah,
I'm going to give it. I'mgoing to give it 8.9 because overall
(26:46):
it did make me sad. I really.I'm glad I've watched it. I think
more people should watch it.Just appreciate being a human being.
Definitely gives you thatreaction, doesn't it?
Yeah.
Especially if you've notexperienced that kind of trauma,
I guess.
Let's go to you, Paul. What doyou think?
Same as you. Emotional rollercoaster. Well put together because
it had the sweet moments andit had the dramatic moments. The
(27:07):
biggest thing for me was, sameas you coming away from it going,
wow, what am I worrying aboutwith all the deaf stuff? I worry
about when you could betrapped in your own body like these
people are. But seeing the joywhen they did have the awakening
scenes, hard. I like the wayDe Niro played it. You feel very
invested with him. You can seewhy it was Oscar nominated again.
(27:29):
Surprised he didn't want, tobe honest. It must have been something
else to knock him out of therunning for that one.
Oscars get it wrong quite abit though.
Just some people's opinion.
This true. So, yeah, veryemotional film. But I liked little
scenes where I like the bitwhere they talked about visual rhythm
and the lady would get to theend of the floor and because the
(27:50):
squares stopped.
Took him a while to work outwhat it was. He's like with the table
out of the way. Yeah, she'sstill not moving.
I think she was going for thewater machine. And then they filled
in the square.
That was good.
She walked. Actually. She wasgoing to the window just.
To see the outside worldbecause we.
Often don't know what peopleare thinking. Yeah. I can't really
say much more that I alreadysaid in the rest of it all. I just
(28:11):
found it very, very inspiringbecause I have a tendency. I have
a very introvert side. I havea tendency of, oh, that's a bit dangerous.
I don't want to do that. Oh,I'm not going to go there.
Saying no to a lot of things.
Yeah. Yeah. So I'm watchingRobin Williams character going, yeah,
should I be doing more? Am Itrapping myself? Should I be more
awakened? So I enjoyed it.Good movie. Never heard of it. What
(28:32):
am I going to give it? That'swhat you're going to ask me because
of the way it made me kind ofinspired. I'm gonna give it an eight.
I Think. I mean, I onlywatched it last night. Confession.
But today I'm fresh. It'sfresh in my head and I'm still thinking
about some of the. The stuff.Thinking. Yeah, I take that for granted.
I take this for granted. Ineed to appreciate that more.
What if you've done. If therewas an emergency last night and you
(28:53):
didn't get time to watch themovie and you let us both down, I'd
never.
I'd never let you down, Aaron.What kind of a movie?
A power cut.
What kind of emergency? Apower cut. What have you done?
I don't know. I'm panickinglate to watch this movie, Darren,
Picking holes in your approach?
I was living life on the edge.
It's like you're not investedat all.
(29:14):
That's him living life on the edge.
It was the only time I couldfit it in.
All right, that's hilarious.Okay, you give it an 8. I'm gonna
cautiously move the haterorator gun across over to Darren
because he hasn't said muchand usually this is bad when he goes
quiet.
I know.
I was just ill over theweekend, so I didn't get as much.
Okay. Darren, what did youmake of this film?
They hated it.
(29:35):
I kind of felt that was coming.
I was waiting for that bombshell.
Yeah, she hated it.
You must have took somethinggood. I think.
I think it took a openingscenes. Took a while to get going.
Those kids were annoying. Andthen the teacher. There was just
some stuff done, likefilmmaking techniques I didn't like.
Like at one point she'swriting in her like mark book and
then she runs her finger downlooking for the. The gap. I said,
(29:56):
we don't do that. We just scanto where it is. And then she runs
another finger, likehorizontally to the name. It's like
no one does that. It's like,oh, there's a gap. Oh, it's that
guy. What the hell's his bookthat might.
Have done in the 60s, youknow, lame.
And then. And then it kind ofjumps. So you don't really care for
this Leonard guy because youdon't see him as a kid enough. I
mean, they could have had thatgo on, I think for like 30 minutes
(30:18):
or so. And it really gotinvested in these kids relationship
and the deterioration andstuff. But then it jumps. And I don't
really care about these.
Adults because, yeah, I don'tknow the character.
I haven't got theirpersonality or anything. And not
that fast. And then my mainthing is this whole kind of awakening
and feeling good. I Think theywere miscast. I think you should
switch them. I think RobinWilliams would have been better as
(30:40):
a Leonard character and RobertDe Niro would have been better as
a socially awkward doctorbecause there's a couple of scenes
that don't really land thatwell, particularly when Leonard is
like, oh, my God, these peopledon't understand how great life is.
But it's De Niro saying that,and it doesn't really fill me with,
like, that sense of joy.Whereas if Robin Williams was doing
See that? And he was like, oh,my God, life is amazing. Drinking
(31:02):
coffee is amazing. Apples areamazing. Sunsets are amazing.
Yeah.
And full Robin Williams flow.
I. I'd get really pulled intothat. But even then, Robin Williams
is then trying to convincepeople to give them money. It's a
really lame presentation. AndI'm just like. And she passes him
the note. Like, less science,but it's really dry. Then they're
like, oh, we're going to giveyou all the money. I was like, is
(31:23):
that really how dry it waswhen you just move. If I up, you
know, make it a speech. Like,it really didn't.
Like a Braveheart kind of speech.
Yeah. Like, get me going. Butthen I was just, you know, like,
I was saying, like,heartbroken that places like this
exist, people are abandoned,and then the real horror is this
idea that they were going togo back into that world. And I just
(31:44):
think there's one horror whereyou've been kind of locked in and
you've just been witnessingyour life pass by, then you get a
break for freedom, and then,you know, you're going back in, and
that's it. And, yeah, I justthought it was heartbreaking, and
I didn't feel. I am absolutely100 grateful for everything that's
in my life. My life is. It'swonderful. So, yeah, I felt. I just
(32:07):
felt. I felt sad. And by the.The filmmaking for me wasn't. Wasn't
kind of bright or energetic or.
I can. I can get that. Yeah.
Yeah.
But you have a differentperspective from. Yeah, so.
No, absolutely. But I'msurprised at how. How extreme our.
Our differences of opinionare. And it may have been just because,
you know, I was ill over theweekend and I didn't test for Kobe,
(32:29):
but, you know, my kid had Covid.
This is a weird one, becauseit. I thought it made me feel sad.
I was quite pleased how itmade me feel sad, because the overall
results, I got it.
But I love the fact you guysgot so much from it, and I don't,
you know, it's just. For me,it's a bit of a dated 1990 movie
that didn't kind of land.
I mean, visually as well.There's not a lot of color or which
(32:50):
is that environment, isn't it?But it's not visually satisfying
as a film. It's very muchabout the performance of.
Yeah. And you've got a reallytalented, rich cast around him. And
they will. Don't really get todo that much stuff. And I didn't
even believe the mainrelationship. I was like, those guys
don't have chemistry. They'resettling because they work in the
(33:11):
same field and they admireeach other. It's not like one of
them tried bowling and fellover. And then he started laughing
so much. And then they gotmarried. I just was.
If you haven't listened to ourlast episode, you need to check that
out right now. Yeah, I.
There was no meet cute. Therewas just no chemistry. It was just,
oh, do you want to go forcoffee? Yeah. Okay. Why? Just because
you're there. So. I think it'swonderful. I think it's wonderfully
(33:33):
based on the true story. Thenwe. The other takeaway I have is
that, you know, fresh eyes.And it does. It made me want to be
a better teacher. I'm a prettyfreaking fantastic teacher.
You got the fans teaching students.
They're fans.
Yeah. Yeah. But it did. Itmade me step back and just be like,
what aren't I seeing? Like, ifI came in with fresh eyes, what can
(33:55):
we do differently? How can wemix things up? And I actually have
started doing that in terms ofthe way they submit work with mixing
up some different options.
Because of this movie.
Yeah.
How can we clean our glasses?
That's pretty powerful.
Yeah. Just.
But you still said you stickuntil you. You hated this movie.
Yeah. Yeah. I. I felt boredall the time and I was just like,
(34:17):
oh, this is this. And. And youknew. I knew it was going to end
badly. I was like, that he'sgoing to go back into this. This
isn't it.
That would took me right off guard.
Yeah. It's gonna disappear. SoI just wish. Yeah. I think it'd be
interesting if they switchroles. Would have been good if you
had more chemistry with theromantic kind of relationship. Yeah.
It's just kind ofheartbreaking that this happens.
And I don't know how we treatpeople with similar conditions now,
(34:39):
but I freaking hope it's. It's.
There's no gardens out there still.
But it's also. It's kind ofthe way we infantilize the Elderly
as well. And I think that wecan all even. I can be like, if I'm
in a hurry and there's like anelderly person being too slow in
the supermarket, I can catchmyself and be like, oh, but you.
(35:00):
I always think that's gonna beme one day.
Yeah.
So what are you gonna give out?
10 one.
What?
Yeah.
What even less than Minecraft?
Yeah.
Even though we've had thisvery deep discussion built off the
fact that we watch this filmbecause you got more.
Out of this than you gotMinecraft, but you've given it less
than Minecraft.
Yeah.
Sticking to it.
(35:21):
I also think it was alwaysgoing to be a one. But then it's
also interesting that that'sthe most different our scores have
been.
Yeah.
Wowzers. I am in shock.
It's not the film that made mefeel those things. It's the story.
It's the original story. It's.It's that that happened. Like I could
have watched it. I could haveread an article on that and it would
have given me the samefeeling. Because the characters.
Matt didn't particularly winme over. Leonard didn't particularly
(35:43):
win me over. Like when De Nirosmiles, I just think of Cape Fear.
Like he's not charming, youknow? And his relationship with the
woman I thought was. Wasweird. I didn't think they had chemistry
either. I don't see what shewould have seen in him. Like I just
didn't get it.
Which is what they used to sayto John Hurd in Big. I don't get
(36:03):
it.
Yeah.
What don't you get?
You give it eight.
Yeah, I'll stick with thatjust because of the way it made me
feel.
Okay, let's see where it landsin the league going down. It puts
it in 27th out of 39, so itputs it just behind Snatch. So snatch
is on 18.2. So awakens on70.9. And crazy stupid love was 17.5.
(36:26):
As well as leave the worldbehind is always 70.5.
That's not too bad though.That's in pretty good company.
Yeah, it is a pretty good company.
That. That's the most diverseyou both had though, because what
was your 8.9?
Almost one. Yeah.
Wow.
There you go. That's whatmakes the world go round.
That's movies, we're prettyboring if we.
All loved every movie or hateevery movie the same. So I'm okay
with that.
I feel bad cuz I'm the one whowas on him. Like I didn't like Hot
(36:48):
Shots. You loved Hot Shots.And I didn't love it.
I didn't love it.
Okay.
But it was. I mean, it's in 36out of 39. So it's.
I think I'm probably goingthrough something. I probably shouldn't
have given up sniffing glue.
Now that's. That's for a Tshirt right there. Our merchandise
stand is going to be amazing.
Okay, thanks, gentlemen.
(37:08):
I'm going to get hate mail,aren't I?
We'll find out. I'll let you know.
You're going to fabricate someone?
Yeah, I hide it from him and Ifabricate it for you.
Yeah, I don't want to know.
Let's move into part three,which is the listener lounge. So
in part three, we have thelobby where we share your comments,
(37:31):
your quest questions and yourmessages. And then we have the question
of the week and we round offwith next week's movies. There's
no question of the week thisweek because it was questions from
the Bourne Identity, whichonly goes out tomorrow as we're recording
this. Okay, so we'll have towait. So if you do want to get in
touch with us, you can emailus. Helloviewiesinanutshell.com youm
can now leave us a voicemail.So if you go to movies in a shell
(37:52):
dot com, if you're on thedesktop or the website, there is
a button that will pop up onthe side or the bottom which will
say leave voicemail. So youcan send us a message. You can just
record it straight into yourphone and we'll read some that.
On the voicemail or fan mail.
Listen to mail, listen tomail. Darren mail.
Darren mail.
Yeah. If you, if you hateDarren, you want to send him a message,
go for it. If you hate hisscores, if you think his scores are
wrong or ours, send us amessage. If you just want to give
(38:15):
us a shout out or anythinglike that, we'll read them out.
We like your stories too.
You actually play them if youwere sending them all in? We'll play
it on the show. Yeah.
Okay, cool.
Okay. Your voice is. Oh. Inother news, which was just. I don't
know if it was alreadyannounced, but there's gonna be a
Spaceballs too.
Yes. Mel brooks stilldirecting 96 or something.
Crazy.
It's crazy with Bill Pullman'sson is going to be in it.
(38:37):
And Bill's back as well.
But he's in it as well.
I didn't realize BillPullman's son was Lewis Pullman.
He's one of the pilots in TopTop Gun. Maverick.
Is he?
Yeah.
Oh, I must have missed that.
Yeah.
I didn't realize it until itsaid about Hotshots and Lewis, Pullman's
gonna be. And I'm like, wait aminute, I've seen him before.
So that's. Could be interesting.
Yeah.
This could be another cashgrab. Could be another sequel for
(39:00):
sequel's sake to make some money.
Which. What Spaceballs1actually took the piss out of in
Spaceballs1.
Yeah.
So we made the sequel theQuest for More Money or something.
Yeah.
So we may need to doSpaceballs and then if it's in the
cinema, it might just be astraight to.
No, I think it's going cinema wide.
Cool. We may need to have acinema trip also. We've always also
(39:21):
started thinking aboutChristmas and what we're gonna do
at Christmas.
Where does this year go?
The schedules, the cinema tripthat will be in. In December.
We were thinking that therewasn't many Christmas films coming
up when we were chatting aboutit, weren't we?
So the. The cinema, theAlhambra is going to let us know
when they've decided whatChristmas films are going to show.
Because they normally showsome classics, don't they?
Do they? Do. So we'll put outthe socials, we'll ask you guys,
(39:41):
let you pick, and then we'llall go.
I'm voting. We'll pickChristmas Carol because let's face
it, it's amazing.
Let's hope they show it. Okay,so that takes us on to this week's
question of the Week, which Iinitially, I was thinking, what's
the saddest movie you've everseen? No, no, no, let's not do that.
Let's what? What's thehappiest movie you've ever seen?
Are you going the other way?
Yeah, go the other way. I'llflip on his head. I didn't want any
(40:02):
more doom and gloom.
The one that's giving me themost joy.
I haven't actually thought ofthis myself, but I thought it was.
I thought I'd flip it on hishead. Because you love a good, happy
film. You love your rom coms.I know.
I'm going through them now.Well, most rom coms have a nice upbeat
ending, don't they?
Yeah.
So nearly every rom com I'veseen, I think Hugh Hugo's got quite
(40:23):
an uplifting. I'm going towatch the musical. So I'm going to
say 13 going on 30.
That's.
That's an upbeat and Slidingdoors. That's kind of a bittersweet.
But uplifting thing. I likethat one.
You got any down?
No, not really. I mean, theone that just makes me happy is an
old Disney film calledBlackbeard's Ghost. It's got Peter
Youssef in it and I just laughlike crazy. It's by the same team
(40:47):
at the Mary Poppins, but it'snowhere near as kind of popular or
well known. But it's DeanJones as a straight man and Peter
Youssanov as a drunken ghost pirate.
That's the question of theweeks. What is the happiest movie
you've ever seen? It can bewhat's made you laugh the most or
what makes you feel the best.Anything like that.
Oh, Palm Springs.
(41:07):
Palm Springs is a good one.Yep. Didn't make Darren feel quite
the same, but that's Darrenfor you.
The life of pie is good.
Oh, life of pie.
Yes.
That's a good one.
That's the question of theweek. If you can, you can email us
hello Movies in a nutshell dotcom. Or you can message us through
our socials. The links are inthe show notes. So if you want to
help us when we do want youwant to help us, the easiest, quickest
way you can do is to share theshow. Tell, spread the word, send
(41:29):
them people a link, dosomething on social media, share
one of our posts. If you canthink of just one person who would
like this podcast, then sendthem a link. Every app on a platform's
got a share button. Or alsojust give us a rating and a review
in whatever platform. What youlistening? Apple, podcasts, Spotify.
If there's an option to giveit a rating review, please do so
or it all helps us and it'spretty quick and easy. Okay, so that
(41:52):
takes us on to next week'smovie. This is Darren, what we're
going for.
Okay. I'm going to take a riskbecause I want to. I want to raise
our very spirits after thelast two movies that we've seen.
Yes, take a gamble on a moviethat as a kid I really, really liked
and thought was funny. But Iknow from the glory of the Internet
that a lot of people on thismovie, it is actually don't even
(42:12):
know what year it came out,but it's Hudson Hawk with. That's
a good sound.
That is.
I think Danny Ayala yellow isin it.
So I've never seen HudsonHawk, but I've always wanted to.
Another movie that I've seenthat you have.
There's a few. There's a few.
Love it.
Yeah, you won't beat me on romcoms, but.
Yeah, well, yeah, I rememberwatching that when I was a lot younger.
(42:35):
I've seen it a few times andI'm. I don't know if it's gonna age
well or what is it like?
Comedy, action?
I can't remember the main.
I think he did it.
It's half comedy, isn't it?
Yeah, it is. It's a comedy.
It's like an action comedy.
I feel like it's one that Ialways felt like I was missing because
it was in a lethal.
I don't want to speculatebecause I.
Might get it wrong, but it's 1991.
(42:55):
Yeah. I thought it was early90s. Yeah.
One hour, 39 minutes.
Excellent. What's it on?
It's on Netflix.
Cool. I'm looking forward tothat. I hope I like it.
I hope you both do. By thesounds of it, our track.
Record of this isn't verygood, but.
It'S a mixed bag.
Oh, yeah. Richard E. Grant'sin it.
Yes.
And James Coburn and Sandra.Actually, one of the writers is Steven
(43:16):
d', Souza, who wrote on DieHard, I think.
Yeah, that's right.
Interesting. There we go.Looking forward to that. So next
week's movie is Hudson Hawk.Love it. Okay, thanks for listening,
guys. This episode isofficially over. This is Mark, say
goodbye.
This is Darren saying goodbyefor now.
I'm sorry if you're right, Iwould agree with you.
That works.
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