Themes: Finding the Cure, Families in Crisis, Battling Illness
Main Cast: Nick Nolte, Susan Sarandon, Peter Ustinov, Kathleen Wilhoite, Gerry Bamman
Release Year: 1992
Country: US
Run Time: 135 minutes
Plot
Susan Sarandon and Nick Nolte give brilliant performances as parents trying to save the life of their son in George Miller's harrowing and heartbreaking Lorenzo's Oil. Based on a true story, the film begins as bright young Lorenzo (Zack O'Malley Greenburg) is leading a pleasant life on the Comoro Islands. But things start to go wrong with him -- he collapses, he raves, and he loses his hearing -- so his concerned parents, Augusto (Nick Nolte) and Michaela Odone (Susan Sarandon), take him to a doctor. The diagnosis is a death warrant; they are told that Lorenzo has been diagnosed with adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), an rare and incurable nerve disease that is always fatal. When Augusto and Michaela are told to be patient as they watch their son sink further into the debilitating illness, they take matters into their own hands and start their own investigation of the disease. Using rapeseed oil, they find their own treatment for ALD. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Review
From George Miller, the Australian director/producer responsible for such action-packed works as the Mad Max trilogy and Dead Calm, comes this surprisingly modest, emotionally intense medical drama. Miller's background as a doctor drew him to the material, and he gives the film a very deliberate pace and mood. The tragic medical docudrama is familiar made-for-television territory, but Lorenzo's Oil escapes pat sentimentality, due largely to the powerful performances of Nick Nolte and Susan Sarandon. Though Nolte is occasionally hampered by a distracting Italian accent, Sarandon brings remarkable reserve and intelligence to her potentially over-the-top role; she was deservedly nominated for an Academy Award. Co-written by Miller, the script is also impressive for its clear, knowledgeable presentation of medical facts, which never bogs down in disease jargon. ~ Brendon Hanley, All Movie Guide
Zack O'Malley Greenburg - Lorenzo Odone; Margo Martindale - Wendy Gimble; James Rebhorn - Ellard Muscatine; Ann Hearn - Loretta Muscatine; Maduka Steady - Omouri; Mary Wakio - Comorian Teacher; Don Suddaby - Himself; Charles R. Altman - Conference Parent; Billy Amman - Lorenzo; Lamont Arnold - Conference Parent; Kathryn Aronson - Conference Parent; Becky Ann Baker - Pellerman's Secretary; Noah Banks - Lorenzo; Angus Barnett - Suddaby's Junior Manager; Todd Bella - Special Child; Jeremy Beyer - Special Child; Eliot Brinton - Symposium Doctor; William Cameron - Pellerman; Amelia Campbell - Murphy Family; Mary Schmidt Campbell - Principal; Susan Chapek - Conference Parent; Nancy Chesney - Conference Parent; Raina Clifford - Special Child; Richard Cordery - Suddaby's Senior Manager; Connie Cranden - Special Child; Daniel W. D'Arcy - Special Child; Elizabeth Daily - Lorenzo; Tia Delaney - Special Child; Anthony di Leo, Jr. - Conference Parent; David Doepken - Conference Parent; Ann Dowd - Pediatrician; Jennifer Dundas - Nurse Nancy Jo; Nora Dunfee - Murphy Family; Nona Gerard - Conference Parent; Mary Pat Gleason - Librarian; Sandy Gore - Murphy Family; Michael Haider - Lorenzo; Mack Hegyes - Special Child; Zahra Ilkanipour - Symposium Doctor; Justin Isfeld - Special Child; Aaron Jackson - Francesco Odone; Rachel Jones - Special Child; Lianne Kressin - Smiling Nurse; Eric Kunkle - Special Child; Paul Lazar - Professor Duncan; Laura Linney - Young Teacher; Annie Loeffler - Conference Parent; Peter MacKenzie - Immunosuppression Doctor; Keiko McDonald - Japanese Translator; Ann McDonough - Dietician; David McFadden - Father Killian; Christine Merriman - Special Child; April Merscher - Murphy Family; John Mowod - Conference Parent; Marie Nugent-Head - Symposium Doctor; Michael O'Neill - School Psycologist; Lamar Olivis - Special Child; Ayub Ommaya - Symposium Doctor; Vladimir Padunov - Russian Translator; Nicolas Petrov - World Bank Executive; Carmen Piccini - Cristina Odone; Barbara Poitier - Nikolais Secretary; Matthew Pyeritz - Special Child; Keith Reddin - Murphy Family; Joyce Reehling - Columnist; Julie Marie Remele - Conference Parent; La Tanya Richardson - Nurse Ruth; C. Alex Roberts - Special Child; Helena Ruoti - Judalon's Nurse; David Shiner - Clown; Ryonosuke Shiono - Symposium Doctor; Rocco Sisto - Murphy Family; Neri Kyle Tannenbaum - Female Lab Voice; Shirley Tannenbaum - Conference Parent; Ryan Thomas - Special Child; William Thunhurst, Jr. - Ear Specialist; Berta Van Zuiden - Conference Parent; Colin Ward - Jack Gimble; Nicholas Wiese - Special Child; Cristin Woodworth - Lorenzo; Brad Einhorn - Male Lab Voice; John Lyons; James Merrill - Symposium Doctor
Credit
Dennis Bradford - Art Director, Colleen Atwood - Costume Designer, George Miller - Director, Marcus D'Arcy - Editor, Richard Francis-Bruce - Editor, Lee Smith - Editor, Lee Smith - Musical Direction/Supervision, Kristi Zea - Production Designer, John Seale - Cinematographer, George Miller - Producer, Doug Mitchell - Producer, Karen O'Hara - Set Designer, Nick Enright - Screenwriter, George Miller - Screenwriter
Failing to find a doctor capable of treating their young son Lorenzo's rare disease, Augusto and Michaela Odone sought their own cure. They set out on a mission to find a treatment to save their child. In their quest, the Odones clashed with doctors, scientists, and support groups, who were skeptical that anything could be done about ALD, much less by laypeople. But they persisted, setting up camp in medical libraries, reviewing animal experiments, badgering researchers, questioning top doctors all over the world, and even organizing an international symposium about the disease. Despite dead ends of research, the horror of watching their son's health decline, and being surrounded by skeptics (including the coordinators of the support group they attended), they persisted until they finally hit upon a therapy involving adding a certain kind of oil (actually an oil containing two specific long chain fatty acids, both isolated from olive oil) to their son's diet. They contacted over 100 firms around the world until they found an elderly British chemist working for Croda International who was willing to take on the challenge of distilling the proper formula. It proved successful in normalizing the accumulation of the very long chain fatty acids in the brain that had been causing their son's steady decline, thereby halting the progression of the disease. There was still a great deal of neurological damage remaining which could not be reversed until new treatments were found to regenerate the myelin sheath (a lipid insulator) around the nerves.
The film ends with Lorenzo at the age of 14 showing definite improvement (he could swallow for himself and answer yes or no questions by blinking) but indicating more medical research is still needed. The end credits of the film note that Lorenzo also regained his sight and was learning to use a computer.
Postscript and Medical Criticism
The actual Lorenzo Odone was able to communicate using modified sign language. Augusto Odone went on to receive an honorary medical degree from the University of Stirling. Lorenzo died on May 30, 2008 at the age of 30 from aspiration pneumonia, brought about by food becoming stuck in his lungs. Aspiration pneumonia is a common cause of death in patients with severe neurologic disease. Lorenzo's oil has been evaluated by several researchers and some have found the oil to have some effect on the progress of the disease, but the results have been mixed at best,[1] The treatment is still being investigated in clinical trials for adrenomyeloneuropathy,[2] and only in asymptomatic males with the gene for cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy.[3] Lorenzo's oil is thought to have no effect on symptomatic patients like Lorenzo.[4] A review of this film by Hugo Moser, a noted researcher of adrenoleukodystrophy (and who is the basis for the film's character, Gus Nikolais) stated that the potential benefits of this treatment were exaggerated in this film.[5] But in 2004 the BBC reported that in a ten-year study directed by Dr. Moser himself, Lorenzo's Oil showed a significant preventative effect: 83 of 120 boys given the oil, who had the ALD gene but had not yet developed the symptoms were still free of the disease. "According to Dr Moser taking the oil reduced the chance of getting the disease by half," while Glenn Stafford, the first asymptomatic patient to be put on the oil was then now 21 years old and fully fit.[6]
Lorenzo's Oil was nominated twice at the 65th Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Susan Sarandon) and Best Original Screenplay (George Miller & Nick Enright).
The film was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay Written Directly for the screen at the WGA Awards.
Reception
Lorenzo's Oil was acclaimed by critics, and currently holds a 91% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times gave it four out of four stars and called it an "immensely moving and challenging movie". He added, "it was impossible not to get swept up in it" and James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave it three out of four stars and claimed "it was about the war for knowledge and the victory of hope through perseverance."
^Farré M, Bosch F, Roset PN, Baños JE (January 2004). "Putting clinical pharmacology in context: the use of popular movies". Journal of Clinical Pharmacology44 (1): 30–6. doi:10.1177/0091270003260679. PMID14681339.
