Movie Critique by: Gaurav Paul Jonathan Liss Musaab Habib
Plot Summary: The movie begins with a boy named Lorenzo Odone, who was normal until his 7th birthday. After that birthday, he began to have many problems, such as blackouts, memory lapses, and many other mental problems. After a while, he is diagnosed with a condition known as ALD, which is a brain disorder that could not be cured by modern medicine and is extremely rare. Basically the saturated fats, which would normally be destroyed by the body, build up in the brain depleting the myelin in the brain and therefore rapidly making simple functions of the body inoperable. Since many of the doctors in the area where he lived were not helpful to his condition, Lorenzo's parents began to learn more about the disease and how they can help Lorenzo. His parents looked at Lorenzo's disease the way they had prepared for journeys to foreign countries in the past; by studying their subject. In order to do so, both of his parents worked extremely hard reading up on biochemistry and other subject matter related to the disease. After much research and many long nights, his parents discover that what may be the secret to curing this disease is a purified olive oil. Unfortunately, they were literally only half right. Because of this mere 'half-success' in curing the disease his parent's studying continued until they found that a different oil, purified rapeseed oil, in combination with the purified oil would produce the chemicals needed to bring Lorenzo's saturated fat levels back to normal.
THE CRITIQUE
**Powerful Scenes
*1st Scene
*2nd Scene
-Then, Augusto compares that with ALD and says that it also has many dimensions, so in order to learn more about it, one must know about many branches of science, such as chemistry, biology, and neurology
-Then Michaela says that they don't have time to learn about all those branches of science
**Recommendations for how the movie could have been better, and what was good about the movie
Plot Summary: The movie begins with a boy named Lorenzo Odone, who was normal until his 7th birthday. After that birthday, he began to have many problems, such as blackouts, memory lapses, and many other mental problems. After a while, he is diagnosed with a condition known as ALD, which is a brain disorder that could not be cured by modern medicine and is extremely rare. Basically the saturated fats, which would normally be destroyed by the body, build up in the brain depleting the myelin in the brain and therefore rapidly making simple functions of the body inoperable. Since many of the doctors in the area where he lived were not helpful to his condition, Lorenzo's parents began to learn more about the disease and how they can help Lorenzo. His parents looked at Lorenzo's disease the way they had prepared for journeys to foreign countries in the past; by studying their subject. In order to do so, both of his parents worked extremely hard reading up on biochemistry and other subject matter related to the disease. After much research and many long nights, his parents discover that what may be the secret to curing this disease is a purified olive oil. Unfortunately, they were literally only half right. Because of this mere 'half-success' in curing the disease his parent's studying continued until they found that a different oil, purified rapeseed oil, in combination with the purified oil would produce the chemicals needed to bring Lorenzo's saturated fat levels back to normal.
THE CRITIQUE
**Powerful Scenes
*1st Scene
- Scene begins with Augusto Odone speaking to Professor Nikolias - Augusto asks the professor if any progress was being made with any of the other kids who have ALD
- Then, the professor said that it is too early to tell whether any progress is being made with Lorenzo, and says that they have to wait six months
- After this, Augusto asks in an angry manner whether waiting six months will produce any results
*2nd Scene
- Scene begins with Augusto speaking to Michaela about what they first did when they went to the Comoros
- Augusto says that they got to learn the country, what resources it had, its laws, and many other things
-Then, Augusto compares that with ALD and says that it also has many dimensions, so in order to learn more about it, one must know about many branches of science, such as chemistry, biology, and neurology
-Then Michaela says that they don't have time to learn about all those branches of science
- Augusto then argues that the doctors don't know anything and that they need to take the treatment of Lorenzo into their hands
- Scene ends with Augusto saying that Lorenzo expects them to take care of him
**Recommendations for how the movie could have been better, and what was good about the movie
- The movie was supposed to be about poverty, but did not talk about the five dimensions of poverty, which are food, shelter, clothing, education, and health care - this only under the assumption that the movie would relate to the topic that we'd been given (poverty) directly
- The movie showed that they didn't have good health care or education, and not it was not only them they didn't have these things, as even the doctors in their area did not have a good education as they knew nothing about the disease that Lorenzo had. This, though was not directly stated as a main point of the movie and it was left to the viewer to deduce this.
- Also, the whole movie focused on how they could cure Lorenzo's disease, but didn't talk about poverty as much, or how they were trying to end poverty; again under the assumption that the movie would relate to poverty directly
- However, the movie, indirectly, showed that without the money that Lorenzo's parents had, Lorenzo would not have had the resources to cure - or at least help - the disease he was suffering from. For instance, someone in a much lower income family than Lorenzo's wouldn't have been able to afford a personal nurse or health-care in the hospital good enough to attend to the patients ALD needs.