Another example of how tremendous critical praise drowns out a reasonable film. By no means was it terrible, it was just nowhere near the level of authentic inspiration I was led to believe. Schnabel takes this based-on-a-true-story dealing with a paralyzed man and his one eye blink of communication and milks it for everything it is worth.
There is definitely some innovative techniques being tossed around when the director is filming the early coma-scenes from the patient's perspective, though I would struggle to call these groundbreaking or truly unique.
What kills some of the momentum and genuine emotion eventually is an unfortunate repetition that appears after we witness this nurses aide reciting the alphabet in French for the hundredth time, seemingly put in yet again to reiterate the struggle which Schnabel has already helped deaden.
There is definitely some innovative techniques being tossed around when the director is filming the early coma-scenes from the patient's perspective, though I would struggle to call these groundbreaking or truly unique.
What kills some of the momentum and genuine emotion eventually is an unfortunate repetition that appears after we witness this nurses aide reciting the alphabet in French for the hundredth time, seemingly put in yet again to reiterate the struggle which Schnabel has already helped deaden.