Rating: 
Summary: An Excellent Movie
Review: There is nothing like a true story and great actors putting their all into a most powerful movie...This story, coupled with the Odone's website help you see the progression of Lorenzo. Unfortunately, Lornenzo's mother passed away but his father is still a force to be reckoned with today.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Movie
Review: There is nothing like a true story and great actors putting their all into a most powerful movie...This story, coupled with the Odone's website help you see the progression of Lorenzo. Unfortunately, Lornenzo's mother passed away but his father is still a force to be reckoned with today.
Rating: 
Summary: discriminate between science and voodoo science
Review: This film is finely made, but that confirms me in the idea that scientific problems are very difficult to deal in the cinema. In this movie the medical statement are questioned. The most simple people could get the idea that physicians are mediocre or interested persons, and this is so in some cases, of course.
But there are much diseases so rare that were unknown and undetected owing to poor conditions of general health until practically 50 years ago when infantile rates of mortality were much higher than now, so mostly of these illness were simply ignored under a huge amount of deaths. The parents of Lorenzo love his son, but they -over all the mother- borders the thin frontier between reason and insanity. Of course nobody is exempt of this under extreme conditions, but she demands healing here and now when this is impossible. The doctors are seen under a potent magnifier lens, and I'm afraid at so close distance nobody is good looking. The physicians must treat not only Lorenzo, but also much other patients with another diseases, something that the family of these sick children are unable to understand, and so, this movie presents for me several questions: the barrier between perseverance and mental blockade, the necessity sometimes of resignation and the misjudgement and devaluation of the scientific method. Cinema has a big influence owing to his easy sentimental impact, but I think reality is hard and truly there are things out of reach of science of today and tomorrow no matter how much you love your family... or if not, we should to be gods, no vulgar human beings. Don't trust very much in miracles as the oil of Lorenzo. This film is good only if you see it only as it is: a fiction.
Rating:
Summary: this moving, true story needs to be on DVD!
Review: This is one of those films that sticks with you... there are scenes and overall themes I will NEVER forget. The real life Odone family, portrayed masterfully by Nick Nolte and Susan Surandon, is beyond what most people would refer to as inspiring.The Odones had adult children from previous marriages, but they had a baby together, Lorenzo, that was the only child living at home after the older children left the nest. Lorenzo had the benefit of being raised by highly intellectual and caring, multi-lingual parents. Since Augusto Odone is a financial wizard for an international bank, which provides not only a comfortable, but worldly life for the family now small family. Lorenzo grows up in Africa, speaking English and Italian fluently and being fully conversant in the language spoken by his classmates in Africa. When Lorenzo reaches school age, his parents return to the United States and Lorenzo starts school... quickly a child who has grown up fearless and extroverted with others of all ages and cultures is having emotional outbursts in class and getting into fights. After it becomes clear that there is a physical reason behind his behavior, not an emotional one, his parents take him to every doctor they can find until they hear that their child has the medical equivalent of a death sentence. As a financial expert and a linguist, the medically ignorant Odones are faced with a pickle. Their child has a rare disease, so rare, it is financially prohibitive for pharmaceutical companies to invest millions and perhaps even billions on developing a cure. The disease, adrenoleukodystrophy, also known as ALD, is inherited by males only from a gene from the mother. It affects boys around the age of 5, destroying the myelin sheath surrounding all nerves, making movement, and even the functioning of the 5 senses slowly disappear. Not to be defeated, the Odones investigate and learn all they can about the disease that is slowly destroying Lorenzo. They soon become experts on the disease and make medical breakthroughs and discoveries not persued by scientists in the past and they soon get attention from the medical community who are in awe of their progress. I can't say much more without revealing the crux of the story, but this is a film that will inspire anyone who sees it to never quit and not to be defeated when told that what they want to accomplish is impossible. The film is an emotional rollercoaster, but one you'll never regret viewing, A fabulous film of this caliber should be ported to DVD... and not just a widescreen film w/ trailers, but behind the scenes footage, interviews with actors and real families that have dealt with the disease, updates on the progress of finding a cure, how to support the ALD foundation and more. I highly recommend this film.
Rating:
Summary: LORENZO'S OIL...THE ELIXIR OF LIFE...
Review: This is the true life story of the Odone family, Augusto, Michaela, and Lorenzo, and their battle with Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), a disease that attacks the central nervous system by systemically destroying its protective cover, the myelin sheath. It is an extremely rare disease that is transmitted exclusively to males through a gene that is carried by the mother. Augusto, an economist, and Michaela, a linguist, were a well educated, well to do, multi-lingual couple with a little son named Lorenzo who was precocious beyond his years. He spoke English and Italian fluently, as well as the language spoken in the community in Africa in which he spent his very early years. When he returned to the United States at about the age of five, his behavior started to change He came overly aggressive and given to emotional outbursts. After much angst on the part of the Odones over what could be wrong, they were finally told that their son suffered from ALD, which was the functional equivalent of having their son being given a death sentence, as there was no cure for this degenerative disease. This well educated couple refused to accept the death sentence meted out to their son by the medical establishment. With no medical background, they disregarded conventional medical wisdom and went about trying to find a cure for their son, in a quest so remarkable and so moving, as to inspire absolute awe in the viewer. A more caring or loving set of parents would be hard to find. Lorenzo is surely loved. Together, Augusto and Michaela take on the medical establishment. What they ended up discovering rocked the medical world. To find out just what it was that they specifically did, you will just have to watch the movie. Director George Miller does a masterful job in directing this film, avoiding the obvious sentimental traps and playing the film out in a very straightforward way. The ravages of this disease are fully played out and are not sugarcoated in any way. Nick Nolte gives a bravura performance as Augusto Odone, though his Italian accent needs a little work. He is superb as the father who transfers his emotion to the task of learning biochemistry in order to ascertain just what factors are at the root of his son's disease. His way of dealing with his son's illness is intellectual and methodical. Susan Sarandon is sensational as Michaela Odone, a woman of such strength, resolution, and determination that it would be hard to find another like her. Her pain is palpable, as she sees her son deteriorate, but she refuses to take the path of least resistance where Lorenzo is concerned. In the face of daunting odds, she perseveres with Lorenzo, talking to him, as well as stimulating and challenging him. A notable performance is also given by Kathleen Wilhuite who plays the part of Dierdre Murphy, Michaela's sister and Lorenzo's loving aunt. This is a sensational film that avoids all the maudlin, sentimental traps laid out in the formulaic disease of the week movies one often finds. This is a deftly directed, well acted film, informative and moving. It is a film that will stay with the viewer, long after the credits have rolled off the screen. This is a film that richly deserves a transfer to DVD. Bravo!
Rating:
Summary: brilliant! the most cutting edge sci-fi since JFK
Review: this movie captured the essence of Asimov perfectly. when i first saw it i was blown away by the state of the art rotoscope techniques used to create the magnificentelements of the film. i would reccomend this movie to any fan of battlestar galactica or lorenzo llamas.
Rating:
Summary: Lorenzo's Oil
Review: This movie was about a little boy who had a rare disease. The movie starts in East Africa and ends in the USA. Lorenzo had wealthy parents that loved him anyway he was. First he came down with symtons of hyperactivty, he was moody, and his brain was not functioning well. They went to all these doctors to run all these tests and they said he had adrenoleukodystrophy, ALD for short. It is a disease that attacks the nerve celss and make the fats in your body raise above normal levels. It is found that the mother was a carrier of this disease and so was her mother. The parents find different ways to treat him because he only a maxium of 2 years to live. They start to do a little reaserch on their own. They finally find a way with oleic acid, but it approved by the FDA, so they were putting their son at risk. WILL IT WORK......
Rating:
Summary: Informative and Likeable Movie
Review: This was really great, well acted (Nick Nolte is SUPPOSED to sound like that! Thats what the 'real' Augusto Odone sounds like I hear...) and the emotions were conveyed well. Its realistic and easy to understand, and sweet and amusing at parts also. (I have been saying "It's the same bloody enzyme!" for weeks) Overall an excellent movie.
Rating:
Summary: Mad Nick, the disease warrior
Review: Who would think a film such as LORENZO'S OIL could be made by director George Miller, most famous for his MAD MAX films? The director does a fantastic job - just watch the unforgettable scene where the boy's father first reads about his son's disease. And who would think tough hombre Nick Nolte could pull off the role of an off-the-boat Italian? The actor should have won an Oscar - three seconds into it, I forgot I was watching Nick Nolte. See LORENZO'S OIL, a great picture that proves what can happen when you pray as if it depends on God while you work as if it depends on you.
Rating:
Summary: Oh My!!!
Review: Words fail me when describing the emotion coveyed in this movie. Susan Sarandon and Nick Nolte do a spellbining job as Lorenzo's parents and the two young men who play Lorenzo do an equal if not superior job to them.
|
