Diagonaldi Very well executed

Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Medysofyan 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.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU An early film on AIDS but the case considered here makes the subject extremely tender and touching. It is an 11 year old BOY who has AIDS and got it from some medical treatment. That was common at the beginning of the epidemic. Of course some neighbourhood kids accuse the child of being gay with nice words like "fag" thrown at him as if it could in anyway be possible.But the interest of the film is the relationship this sick child, Dexter, is going to build with his next door neighbour who is slightly older but alone with his mother like Dexter. This neighbour, Erik, is looking for a friend for the summer and he assumes the situation in which Dexter is naturally but with a tremendous optimism trying by all means to find a cure in some plants, concocting all kinds of potions for his friend.But the best side of the story is how these two boys develop a loving relationship that makes them adventurous, courageous, even reckless, just to get a cure for the disease or to get to New Orleans where there supposedly is some doctor who would have a cure. The whole adventure becomes some kind of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer down the Mississippi all over again, though in slightly different conditions.This love between the two boys is in fact a threesome in a way since there is always a third character, the disease itself that haunts Dexter, that possesses Dexter and at the same time that entirely controls Erik, his reactions, his care, his tricks and pranks on nurses and doctors. Erik's mother is just a prop but Dexter's mother is also extremely important in her patience, in the way she accompanies Dexter to his final destination and accepts the love between the two boys and the silly antics they do together just because it might be the last chance Dexter has to experience some pleasure, some happiness.And the end is a miracle in a way. The two boys decide to play a trick on a doctor again, Dexter pretending he is dead in order to resuscitate and frighten the doctor. But that was one time too many and this time the doctor confirms the diagnosis which is this time no longer a trick. That kind of end is so cool, so natural, so peaceful we just wonder if that is not the miracle a doctor spoke of before: going out on tiptoe as discreetly as possible like an angel in the sky.Those two boys and Dexter's mother seem to give us a tremendous lesson when we are confronted to a disease that does not want to be cured. Patience, calm and receptivity seem to be the needed cure when there is no other.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

wildsideme Very nice movie! I was browsing the channels on my TV and I usually ignore the channels that air drama movies but then I saw this channel that airs old school movies and it is where I saw this movie. At first, when I saw the title "The Cure" I thought it's gonna be boring but then I got hooked when I saw Brad Renfro was in this movie (because of one of my favorite movie of all time is "The Client" where Brad also stars). Then the scenes was getting better and better. The story is so beautiful and very touching! I cried hard in this movie which I don't usually do. Great casting! and there are so many beautiful lines/quotes in this movie which is very striking and made me cry hard! Now, I bought my own copy on DVD and I always recommend it to everyone!

Andreas Niedermayer 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.