Lorenzo's Oil (1992)

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Written by George Miller, Nick Enright

Directed by George Miller

Also known as "L'huile de Lorenzo", "Un Milagro para Lorenzo"

Running Time: 130 minutes (approx)

Production Year: 1992

Rating: 15 Certificate

Filmed in Colour

Augusto (Nick Nolte) and Michaela Odone (Susan Sarandon) are a very happy Italian/Irish-American couple who are dealt a cruel blow by fate when their 5 year-old son, Lorenzo is diagnosed with a degenerative brain disease with no known cure.

In April 1984, five-year-old Lorenzo is diagnosed as having a rare and incurable disease. Doctors diagnose Lorenzo as suffering from Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), this is a degenerative disease which only affects boys and usually gives its sufferers around two years to live and reduces them into vegetables following dementia, convulsions, blindness, deafness, mutness, etc..

However the couple refuse to believe that there is nothing they can do to save his life so set about researching the illness and coming up with theories to a cure. After a year or so, they are successful in their quest for hope and discover that a pure olive oil could be the answer, but the medical profession refuse to comment, leaving the couple administering this 'oil' to Lorenzo themselves, with significant results.

What follows after this discovery is a fight for this oil's enforcement and doctor's trust. The results of this couple's fight against the medical industry and even families of other sufferers, who refuse to get their hopes up, results in the cure being publically recognised and the couple trying to find a way of returning to their son's mental capacity to near-normal through researching another substance.

The results of their fight have re-written medical history as their son defied all the odds by, not only surviving the disease, but also by making slow mental recovery in the years since.

Cast

Image for Nick NolteNick NolteAugusto Odone
Image for Susan SarandonSusan SarandonMichaela Odone
Peter UstinovProf. Gus Nikolais
Kathleen WilhoiteDeirdre Murphy
Gerry BammanDr. Judalon
Margo MartindaleWendy Gimble
Image for James RebhornJames RebhornEllard Muscatine
Ann HearnLoretta Muscatine
Maduka SteadyOmuori
Mary WakioComorian Teacher
Don SuddabyHimself
Colin WardJake Gimble
LaTanya RichardsonNurse Ruth
Jennifer DundasNurse Nancy Jo
William CameronPellerman Protochem Labs

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