This is the first Western drama I watched when I was a kid that showed me how fun it is to have a childhood adventure with your best friend but at the same time it touched my childish heart with its poignant plot.I think it's a great movie because I really enjoyed it and I could easily relate to the two lead characters: a hard-edged, misfit Erik and Dexter, an eleven years old boy who got AIDS from blood transfusion. The way these kids deal with the horrible disease and then embark on an adventure to find the cure – is natural and uplifting.After growing up and watch it again, I've noticed some things that intensify my love for this movie, which I didn't fully understand then. It taught me, in the most simple and sincere way, about the danger of AIDS and the importance of supports to the patients. I love how Erik stand up for his next-door-ailing- best-friend against the bullies and his alcoholic and abusive mother. And Dexter beautifully portrays a terminally-ill kid who is just too young to understand his situation and decides to just live with it.The acting of Brad Renfro and Joseph Mazzello, who play Erik and Dexter respectively, is impeccable. The relationship between the two boys are solid, like they were meant to complete each other. Erik is a rebel and outdoorsy, which he got from his distant and storming mother. On the contrary, Dexter is smart and witty boy whose sweet relationship with his mom fascinates Erik. He sticks to Dexter and his mother's imperfect but happy life, regardless rejections from surroundings.The most memorable scene from this movie is what I called 'the shoe metaphor'. On one night in the middle of their naive-but-brave adventure, Dexter tells Erik about his fear of death and nothingness.Dexter: Suppose you kept going another 18 billion light years, what if there's nothing out there? Suppose you kept going another trillion times further, so far out you see nothing. The light from the universe would be fainter than the faintest star. Infinitely cold. Infinitely dark. Sometimes if I wake up and it's dark, I get really scared, like I'm out there and I'm never coming back.Erik: Here, hold onto this when you sleep. And if you wake up and you're scared, you'll say, "Wait a minute. I'm holding Eric's shoe. Why the hell would I be holding some smelly basketball shoe a trillion light years from the universe? I must be here on earth, safe in my sleeping bag, and Eric must be close by." And the smelly shoe, continues to bring tears off of my eyes in the end of the movie, when Erik puts the shoe to Dexter's hand in his coffin, – then releases Dexter's black funeral shoe to the river. This is very saddening because the boys start their adventure from the river with a raft made of used tire. The adventure that will always continue and bonds them forever.Lastly, this movie is the first movie that taught me the art of letting go. No matter how much we love someone, we need to be able to let go and move on. And we gotta keep holding on their beautiful memories so they will live forever in our hearts – and in heaven.

The Cure starts off a little hokey at first, but it quickly becomes a really powerful and gripping film that words alone can't describe. It's a testament to the intense friendship between two very different kids as they travel through an adventurous summer. And there's one other catch... one of them is dying and their goal is to find a cure for what's killing him.Eric and Dexter might as well be from different planets; Eric is a loner bad boy from a broken family, with his only companion being his b!tchy mom who works constantly but is never there for her son. Dexter is a sickly little boy who unfortunately caught AIDS from a blood transfusion and he's the only one his single mom, Linda, has left in the world. When Eric meets Dexter from next-door and immediately assumes he's "a homo", Dexter doesn't really take offense, which is something new to Eric, and suddenly he starts spending more time with Dexter and they quickly become best friends. Eric's mission is to help Dexter find a cure for AIDS, and this becomes their summer quest as they run away to New Orleans.Words can't really express just how good this film is, so all I can really say is that I loved it. It has excellent actors, a wonderful soundtrack and an exciting, intense, original plot that'll stay with you forever after you've seen it. It's amazing and I highly recommend it.

Even though this film is 11 years old, I just rented it yesterday, and I found it to be a really touching film. The story of true friendship in the face of a very real monster is an inspiration and quite touching.While I did not care much for the amount of language used by some of the young actors--especially from Renfro--I understand that art is imitating life. Renfro once again does a magnificent job of the rough-and-tough, very (and I mean VERY) disturbed wannabe bully (his role in The Client comes to mind), and Mazzello does a wonderful job of the witty, somewhat quirky, Dexter--a child who realizes that his life must end too soon.While there are so many touching and funny moments in the movie, I have to say that my favorite was when the boys were cornered by Pony in the abandoned church, and Dexter (Mazzello) cut himself, saying his blood was poison. While very resourceful, and somewhat amusing seeing a grown man running away from two little kids, it's one of the hardest scenes in the film.Definitely check this one out, but prepared with your Kleenex--you'll need it!

The Cure is an outstanding real-life drama that deals with a very sensitive subject. It is the story of the profound and dear friendship between two boys, Eric and Dexter. The latter has acquired AIDS from a blood transfusion. Thus he and his mom (Annabella Sciorra) have become outcasts, shunned by the public and labeled as dangerous company, basically due to a common lack of public knowledge of the disease.When Eric (Brad Renfro, known from 'The Client' and 'Apt Pupil') and his mom move into the house next to them, he has to deal with public insults and the fear of catching AIDS himself. However, Eric overcomes his fear and risks everything. At first he starts talking to Dexter, but eventually he climbs over the fence and joins the witty boy (played by Jurassic Park's Joseph Mazzello) and his games. Very quickly he develops a real friendship with Dexter, who is delicately built and frail due to his condition.The central theme of the movie – the theme which makes it pervasively authentic and tragic at the same time – is how Eric and Dexter try to find the ultimate cure. At first they experiment with all kinds of plants and leaves – which is very naive, but also genuine at the same time, as it shows how young kids deal with such heinous diseases and how strongly they still believe in the magic of the world. When they hear about an alleged cure which has been developed in the South, they do not hesitate and take off for an adventure that will bring them even closer together and symbolizes the ultimate quest for hope.So they board a raft and head southwards on the Mississippi River. What starts as a real adventure becomes a dangerous undertaking, which is emotionally intriguing and instructive at the same time. The scene when Dexter reveals his fears and talks about the end of the universe, where everything is dark and cold, Eric hands him his sneaker, a symbol that wherever the boy may have to go, Eric is and will always be with him; he will never have to be alone. This sequence, which is one of the most compelling ones of the movie, features a very convincing interaction between the two actors, who manage to avoid awkward and corny dialogs and deliver a very genuine performance that is eventually smashing in its tenderness and honesty.I will not go any further in outlining the plot, as I do not intend to give away too much information. The ending however is emotionally tough and makes the audience so much a part of the tragedy that everyone who watches the movie will feel personally affected. This aspect makes this movie so strong, so outstanding and so convincing. The emotional burden on every character is so real and so thrashing that even the tougher members of the audience might need some hankies.A 10 is doing justice to this movie and is not too high a rating. There is hardly any other movie I have seen in my life so far that handles such an emotional issue with so much wit and sensibility. It is the story of how two boys make each other's life richer and how they teach each other lessons of life. Thus Dexter overcomes his isolation and sadness, and Eric learns what really counts in life; and both of them realize how much of a gift real friendship is when it comes to the hardest moments of life.This movie is tragic – but its message is sheer inspiration.