I had heard about this film for some time, mainly because of the leading actor and bits and pieces I had heard about the concept, I hoped it would be something I would enjoy, written by J.J. Abrams (Forever Young, Alias, Lost, Star Wars: The Force Awakens), directed by Mike Nichols (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Graduate, Closer, Charlie Wilson's War). Basically Henry Turner (Harrison Ford) is an ambitious and highly successful Manhattan lawyer, but he is obsessed with work and has a callous, narcissistic, and sometimes unethical nature. Henry being despicable and ruthless in the workplace, spending the majority of his time there leaves him little time to be with his prim socialite wife Sarah (Annette Bening) and troubled pre-teenage daughter Rachel (Mikki Allen). One night, Henry goes into a convenience store for cigarettes, there he interrupts a robbery, the Gunman (John Leguizamo) shoots Henry in the chest and head before fleeing. The bullet to the head hit Henry's right frontal lobe, and the bullet to the chest hit Henry's left subclavian vein, this means he experienced internal bleeding and a cardiac arrest, but more imminently he has suffered brain damage, losing the ability to move or speak, and suffers retrograde amnesia. With the help of a physical therapist Bradley (Bill Nunn), Henry slowly regains his movement and speech, returning home he is almost childlike, with Rachel teaching him to read, being impressed by his surroundings, and forming new friendships with his family and colleagues. Henry realises he does not like the person he was before the shooting, and she and her daughter have become much closer, she is not happy to be going to an out-of-town elite school for girls, as had been planned for her, Henry and Sarah also become much closer, returning to how passionate they felt when they first met, she suggests they should relocate to a smaller, less expensive residence. Henry is allowed to return to work at his firm, but his old assignments and large office are taken away, he is essentially only assigned busy work, he begins to realise he does not want to be a lawyer anymore, this is confirmed when he hears "friends" making derogatory comments about him at a dinner. Henry finds a letter to Sarah from a former colleague disclosing an affair, he is also approached by fellow attorney Linda (Rebecca Miller) who reveals that they also had an affair and had told her he would leave Sarah for her, this makes Henry have second thoughts about himself and his relationships. Henry gives documents from his last case that were suppressed by the firm to the plaintiff who was right all along, he apologises to them, in the end Henry resigns from the firm, says goodbye to Linda, returns to and reconciles with Sarah, realising everything with their lives, before the shooting, was wrong, and finally they withdraw Rachel from the school, Henry and her family all walk away happy. Also starring Donald Moffat as Charlie Cameron, James Rebhorn as Dr. Sultan, Aida Linares as Rosella, Elizabeth Wilson as Henry's secretary Jessica, Robin Bartlett as Phyllis, Bruce Altman as Henry's partner Bruce and John MacKay as George. Ford is often in roles showing not much emotion, so it is perhaps an odd choice for him to be a mean lawyer turning nice, Bening gets some good moments as his wife, it is a very simple story, it may have its flaws in terms of star power, some sympathy for the characters and some predictable bits, but can just get washed up in the glossiness of it, it is a nice enough story, a reasonable drama. Worth watching!

This is possibly the worst movie about traumatic brain injury (TBI) ever made. As a former speech therapist who worked with children and adults recovering from TBI I was appalled at the lack of apparent research in preparation for the film. Nichols and Ford were so far off the mark it was embarrassingly silly. Example: For person recovering language it's a bad idea to swamp them with so much language that all words become a meaningless string of sounds. It's the same as dropping a non-swimmer in the ocean knowing all that water is going to teach him to swim. The physical therapist was probably the worst and any self respecting speech therapist would've told him to be quiet. The plot is simple predictable and unmoving.why this director would take these actors and toss them into a dramatic ocean and expect them to swim without direction is as silly as their depiction of recovering from TBI.

Regarding HenryWho needs memories when we have thousands of photographs of every event in our lives stored on our computers?Still, the memory loss suffer in this drama would like to regain his recall.Forgetting his cold-heartedness after being shot in the head during a convenient store robbery, high-powered attorney Henry (Harrison Ford) finds himself relying on his neglected wife (Annette Bening) and distant daughter for the first-time in his selfish life.Initially unaware of his former foulness, Henry forges new relationships with both women.When his past becomes clearer, however, he starts to see the flaws in his former existence and sets out to right them. Handcrafted to evoke feels of sentimentality, this J.J. Abrams scripted redemption tale relies too heavily on feel-good father-daughter moments and Dickensian epiphanies to progress its engaging but predictable narrative.Incidentally, the best person to jog an amnesiac's memory is someone who owes them money.Yellow Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

I'm amazed at some of the negative reviews here, I really liked this movie.Plot In A Paragraph: Henry Turner (a brilliant Harrison Ford) is a despicable and ruthless lawyer whose life is turned upside down when one night whilst out buying some cigarettes, he is shot in the head during a robbery. Luckily, he survives the injury with significant brain damage and must re-learn how to speak, walk, and function normally. He has also lost most of the memory of his personal life, and must adjust to life with the family that he does not remember. To the surprise of his wife and daughter, Henry becomes a kind, loving and affectionate man.Bill Nunn is a stand out performer as Bradley, Henry's Physical Therapist, Annette Bening is great as Henry's wife, and Mikki Allen is also great as his daughter Rachel, John Leguizamo pops up too as the liquor store gun man. But this movie is all abut Harrison Ford he is the heart and core of the movie. I'm surprised this hasn't gotten more attention over the years