Cast your mind back to 1990, and one Robert De Niro film inevitably springs to mind: Martin Scorsese’s peerless crime epic Goodfellas. But just three months after Goodfellas premiered, de Niro appeared in another movie that not only wowed audiences but also showed an entirely different side to his acting.
Given her impeccable film-making pedigree – think A League Of Their Own or Tom Hanks’ smash hit Big – it’s remarkable that director Penny Marshall didn’t receive more acclaim. The pick of her back catalog is Awakenings, a medical drama that tells the true story of a group of non-responsive patients in a 1960s New York hospital, all of whom became catatonic decades prior due to a rare type of encephalitis. With the local physicians having all but given up on finding a way to treat them, an unconventional doctor (Robin Williams) hits on the idea of trying a brand-new drug treatment. Over the doubts of his superiors, he enlists the help of a sympathetic nurse (played with quiet excellence by The Simpsons star Julie Kavner), and before long, the patients – some of whom have not spoken for forty years – begin to “awaken”.
Robert De Niro’s Performances in Penny Marshall’s ‘Awakenings’ Received Critical Acclaim
The star patient is Leonard (De Niro), who has been catatonic since boyhood. De Niro’s physical mannerisms are exceptionally evocative of a man trapped, so to speak, inside his own body; Roger Ebert, in a glowing review, described it as “a virtuoso performance.” And no wonder: the strange facial movements as Leonard seemingly starts to relearn how to make expressions are no less touching than the halting steps he makes across the floor of the hospital ward, or the scribble he makes with a crayon shortly after – all but illegible, but his first conscious act as a man, and one of which he is evidently and rightfully proud. Even more heartwarming is the emotional “reunion” with his mother (Ruth Nelson) – though, of course, it is no such thing; she has been at his bedside reading to him for decades. Throughout, De Niro maintains the persona of a boy unexpectedly thrust into adulthood, and unsure of how to cope with the maelstrom of emotions stirring within him.
De Niro’s Performance Rises And Falls With His Character
The premise offered many opportunities for the sort of fish-out-of-water narrative one ordinarily associates with time-travel narratives, for in a sense, that is exactly what Awakenings‘ patients have done: with no memories of anything before the onset of their illness, we see Leonard’s wide-eyed responses to the way-out fashions of the late 1960s, man walking on the Moon, and so forth. At a time before he segued into screwball comedies such as Meet the Parents, De Niro’s stock-in-trade during this period was largely based on crime dramas, biographical films, and the odd romcom. Awakenings offered an opportunity to play a different kind of role – a patient whose gradual emergence from catatonia presented unique acting challenges. De Niro’s physical characterization of Leonard is uncannily convincing: his tremors and unwieldy gait as he rediscovers the ability to write, to talk, and to walk were far removed from anything he had ever played.
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It is also De Niro’s performance, more than anything else, that saves the film from sentimentalism. Williams’ doctor begins to dread that the drug, though initially effective, loses its potency over time, and sure enough, one by one, the patients slip back into catatonia. Having watched Leonard rediscover life, and even begin a dalliance with the daughter of another patient (played with delicacy by future Golden Globe nominee Penelope Ann Miller), De Niro’s portrayal of Leonard as he suffers violent convulsions – begging Williams through chattering teeth not for help, but to grab a camera and shoot footage of the seizure for research purposes – is shocking and heart-breaking. De Niro had already received two Oscar wins for his work in Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, respectively, but given the depth of this remarkable, multi-faceted, pitch-perfect performance, the mystery is why Awakenings didn’t make it three.
Awakenings
- Release Date
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December 4, 1990
- Runtime
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120 minutes
- Director
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Penny Marshall
- Writers
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Steven Zaillian
- Producers
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Arne Schmidt, Elliot Abbott, Lawrence Lasker
