Movie Reviews for Charly

Charly

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Movie Reviews of Charly

Movie Review: Stick with the book
Summary: 3 Stars

I read Flowers for Algernon a few years ago so I had pretty much forgotten the story. If you've never read the book, I do high recommend that you pickup a copy from the library.

A mildly mentally retarded man submits to a scientific experiment to increase his intelligence. Like "Frankenstein", "Charly" is a clever morality play about science that crosses certain boundaries. Unlike "Frankenstein", which took the horror route, "Charly" explores the emotional human tragedy that inevitably occurs when an experiment of this nature goes awry.

Many scientists back then and even today argue that the professional boundaries that were crossed in this story would never happen in real life. Yet with the recent successful gene manipulation and cloning experiments many believe it is only a matter of time, a very short time, before a human submits to such experiments.

What I got most from this film is not a clinical study of mental retardation but the way society deals with mental retardation, and in this the film soars, and it will bring a tear or two if you have even a bit of humanity. It is a wonderful film, on many levels, testing us all on how we deal with those who are so unfortunate as to be mentally handicapped.

The one funny thing about movies made in the 60s are the psychedelic visual effects...some of them were way out to lunch.

Movie Review: Charly shows its age
Summary: 3 Stars

Cliff Robertson plays the mentally challenged Charly Gordon in this so-so adaptation of Daniel Keyes's short story "Flowers for Algernon." Robertson volunteers to be a human guinea pig after an operation on the brains of mice have shown them to appear "smarter." Indeed Charly becomes a genius, after which he falls in love with his clinician (played by Claire Bloom). Director Ralph Nelson plays up this romantic element using all the cinematic clichés of the late 60s - falling leaves, pastel colors, soft music - perhaps new and different at the time, but pretty hard to take today. Worse is that Nelson's attention is drawn away from the real point of the story - the results of the experiment and what it says about the way we view each other, though the best scene in the movie is where Robertson lectures a roomful of doctors about their arrogance as he holds the dead mouse Algernon in his hand, a victim of the experiment - as Robertson will shortly become as well. Keyes's short story is dramatic and probing where this movie goes flat and flakey. Robertson won the Academy Award for his efforts.

Movie Review: The book is a lot better and more real-like than movie.
Summary: 3 Stars

I read the book twice, one 20 years ago when I was in school and second time recently. I still enjoyed it. I watched the DVD movie last night and was disappointed that it was not as good as the book. It was a little off the point (scenes, plots, and character like Dr. Strauss in the book was a man and Dr. Straus - different spelling in the movie was a woman as I have nothing against). The point is that the movie could have been better with better script, editing, and directing with Cliff Robertson still in it. Good performance by Cliff Robertson helped save the movie. If it was acted by unknown actor, then the movie would have been boring. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" with Jack Nicholson is much better in comparison, even though, they were made 7 years apart.

Movie Review: Not the movie I remember
Summary: 3 Stars

I remember seeing a movie about Charly Gordon (Flowers for Algernon) in Jr. High. Though the same story, this wasn't the same movie and for me, the story was lost in Cliff Robertson's over acting. Also, the "tripped-out" 60s biker scene came from nowhere, and pushed the film right over the cliff it had been struggling to avoid.

I'll not rehash the story line, but I would like to say the "acting" of Cliff Robertson greatly overshadowed the character of Charly Gordon. This is unfortunate, because the story has so much potential.