Charly

Rating:
Summary: Cliff Robertson's Oscar winning role as Charly Gordon
Review: "Charly" is based on Daniel Keyes's short story turned into a novel "Flowers for Algernon." The story was about Charly Gordon, a man who, in the parlance of the time, was mentally retarded. As part of a scientific experiment he is given a drug that turns him into a genius. The Algernon of the title is a lab rat who was the first guinea pig for this treatment. However, the treatment proves to be only temporary. Both versions of Keyes's story were done as diary entries, which provided a graphic indication of how Charly is changing.

The 1968 movie version, of course, opens up the story and gets away from the first-person perspective that made "Flowers for Algernon" so compelling. To add insult to injury, there is now a romance between Charly with a character named Alice Kinian (Claire Bloom). Of course, this changes the whole dynamic of the film, at the cost of the poignancy of Charly's relationship with Algernon. As the title character Cliff Robertson won the Oscar and clearly the problem is not with his performance but rather with Stirling Silliphant's screenplay. Still, to be fair, any film adaptation of the fragile original story was going to lose what made it so great.

Consequently, this is one of those films that you will enjoy more if you have not read "Flowers for Algernon." Of course, if you have not read either the short story or the novel, you should. At least this was an intelligence "science fiction" film for its day, certainly a more human story than other films of that era, such as "2001: A Space Odyssey."

Rating:
Summary: Can anyone answer the question Charlie Gordon?
Review: Charly is a movie about a man who is a mentally challenged named Charlie (Cliff Robertson) who is given the opportunity to triple his intelligence by a newly introduced surgery. Charlie has the desire to be a normal person, so he is the perfect subject for the experiment. This movie is highly recommended for those who have ever read the short story "Flowers for Algernon" the short story that it is based on. Charly, It has good music performed to keep the story moving, and is rated PG (parental guidance) because of the lack of violence and profanity. Charly was a movie of hope, dreams, love, comedy, success, and tragedy. Cliff Robertson's performance is outstanding, much like Tom Hank's performance in Forest Gump. Robertson portrayed a both retarded, and a Genius very, very well. The co-star who played Ms. Kinnian also performed well acting out the part of Charlie's teacher and friend throughout the movie. Charly is a great movie that should defiantly not be overlooked, especially for science fiction and romance lovers.

Rating:
Summary: Decent film adaptation of the classic short story
Review: Cliff Robertson won the Academy Award for best actor with his excellent portrayal of Charly Gordon. It takes an actor with great versatility to first play a mentally-challenged man and then turn around and portray a surgically-transformed genius; Robertson fills the bill with great satisfaction. To fully appreciate the quality of this film, a great suggestion would be to first read the short story titled "Flowers for Algernon" on which this movie is based.

Rating:
Summary: Read The Book First
Review: I just finished reading Flowers For Algernon, and it is an outstanding literary work. Then I watched this movie.

104 minutes of film cannot do justice to a 216 page masterpiece. Cliff Robertson deserved the Oscar he won for this movie. He is at his very best in this picture. I wish they had used a little more tape to draw a broader picture of his character, and spent more time concentrating on his regression. The infamous motorcycle scenes were strangely out of place, and this short segment could have been expanded upon by focusing a little more time and creativity on his emotional development.

When the comparison to the book is eliminated from the equation, this movie stands well on its own.

Rating:
Summary: Robertson rivals dustin hoffmans performance in Rain Man
Review: This movie is emotionally moving, stimulating, and thought prevoking. Share the joys and sadness of a handicapped man's journey from limited intelligence to genius status, then revert to his earlier levels. Share his joy and experiences of learning, loving, seeing hearing and touching. Share the sadness of his intellectual decline, and the gap his departure leaves for those touched by him.

A devestating performance by Robertson, servely underated by the critics.

Rating:
Summary: Rushed and Confused but Beautiful
Review: unfortunately this film tries to push the whole wonderful story 'Flowers For Algernon' into a way too short film. Everything is missing, the most important elements of the book are just not there.
Cliff Robertson is excellent but at times he looks too old for the part of Charly. His over-use of the drooling mouth effect can become annoying as does watching charly (low iq version) spelling out words with his lips.
However, watch this a few times and you will realize that this is a truly sweet film, sad and touching and great for rainy Sunday afternoons!