........................................................from Pasto,Colombia...Via: L.A. CA., CALI, Colombia...and ORLANDO, FL "The brain is a miracle!" Says Dr. Ben Carson upon being asked why he wanted to be a brain surgeon during his screening interview as an applicant for internship at prestigious John Hopkins Hospital. That Carson would become eventually, perhaps, the best and most renowned Pediatric Neurosurgeon in the world is even a bigger miracle! These words are easy to identify with because "What the human mind can conceive and believe, it can ACHIEVE!"-Dr. Napoleon Hill.Every time I sit down to write a review, my goal is to find some aspect of the film that inspires me, and then manage to express that in a way that will, in turn, serve to inspire you! In the case of GIFTED HANDS, there is a lot of inspiration at its core! Dr. Carson's particular well-spring of inspiration is his faith in God.Unfortunately, there are always a few people who seem to find this religious source anathema to their continued existence on this planet! Why is that? I consider myself a spiritual person, but not really religious, in the traditional sense. Yet, I find this attitude just as baffling as those who cannot countenance a story line where inspiration is NOT faith-based. Inspiration is inspiration, no matter who, where, how, when or why! GIFTED HANDS deserves KUDOS for several things it doesn't do: Despite being about an African-American trailblazer starting out in the 60's and 70's, there is only one brief scene where Carson is dissed simply for being "different". Certainly, there must have been a number of times in his life where he encountered racism, but one scene was enough to underscore this. (One of the BEST scenes in the film, BTW) Cuba Gooding, Jr. was excellent (but not great) in the title role. Two Constructive Critiques: Even with his wrinkles digitally air-brushed out, at 41, Gooding was too old to play a 19 year-old college Freshman. Also, as is usually the case with TV productions, some aspects were slightly below par, causing me to rate this 9* as opposed to 10* .....ENJOY/DISFRUTELA! Any comments, questions or observations, in English o en Español, are most welcome!

This movie was an insult on so many levels. Hackneyed dialog, horrible direction, dull performances and a diabetic score that left me searching for the insulin. Let's just take the sequence where God taught Ben Carson chemistry. There's absolutely no set up for it. Ben gets transported to a dream sequence with some pointy bearded man at the chalkboard. Who is he? Is he God? Is he a teacher? We don't know because setting up who he is would have eaten up 10 seconds of endless surgery footage. Ascribing Carson's 97 on the test to God implies that Carson really didn't do any studying. New flash - God doesn't help you pass tests. Carson's mother is cured of her depression in two weeks? That's insulting. Carson gets the respect of a bully by winning a "yo mama" battle? The interview to get into Johns Hopkins left me seriously questioning the credibility of that institution. Incidents of interest get thrown away as soon as they happen. He tries to kill his mother with a hammer and his mother says she'll give him control of the finances....and.................there's no resolution. The movie skips from scene to scene with no flow whatsoever. None. Throughout it all, there's miserable dialog. While cleaning some professor's house you get the following: Professor: Mrs Carson? Mrs. Carson: Yes? Professor: It's the kitchen floor. Mrs. Carson: Yes? Professor: It sparkles!You get tons of "hard work ain't never hurt nobody"'s and the obligatory "he had to overcome racism, too, poor guy!" scene. It's all so sanitized and laughable that that it's hard to take seriously. You also get ooddles of soul music when Ben's on screen despite being told that Ben doesn't listen to that music. Did foosball actually help him become a surgeon? Apparently so!Don't get me wrong - I know this movie is complete and utter fiction but it's the dangerous fiction that passes itself off a true. The only good reason to watch this film is teach people how to identify the use of propaganda in cinema.

I'd like to see more movies like this one in the theaters. Extraordinary movie, fantastic actors. Kimberly Elise as Ben's mom (Sonya Carson) is amazing! Sonya is an example of what parenting means. She was not only concerned about giving good academic education to her children but taught them to have values and faith in God. If more parents would be concerned and involved in their children's education we would have more Einsteins, more Mozarts, more Carsons. I really recommend this movie to parents who care for their children and to children who want to understand why their parents expect so much from them. We need to remember that diamonds are created under great pressure.

I grew up hearing about some of Ben Carson's amazing surgeries and remember reading about him when I was a teenager, probably, so I was excited when I heard about this movie. I just watched it for the first time, and it's one of the best movies I've ever seen. I can't believe it was a made-for-TV movie! This movie tells the story of how Ben Carson went from being a kid who was a failure in school and had a very low self-esteem to a famous, gifted surgeon. It tells some about his family life and about two of his famous surgeries. This movie kept me glued to it all the way through--it was like a good book you can't put down!