Editing Awakenings (section)

===Critical response===
''Awakenings'' received positive reviews from critics. [[Review aggregator]] [[Rotten Tomatoes]] reports that 81% of 37 film critics have given the film a positive review, with an average rating of 6.6/10. Its consensus states: "Elevated by some of Robin Williams'[s] finest non-comedic work and a strong performance from Robert De Niro, ''Awakenings'' skirts the edges of melodrama, then soars above it."<ref>{{cite web |title=Awakenings |url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1032970-awakenings/ |access-date=April 26, 2025 |work=[[Rotten Tomatoes]]}}</ref> [[Metacritic]], which assigns a weighted average score from reviews of mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 74 out of 100, based on 18 reviews.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.metacritic.com/movie/awakenings|title=Awakenings |work=[[Metacritic]] |access-date= February 16, 2013}}</ref> Audiences surveyed by [[CinemaScore]] gave the film a grade of A on a scale of A+ to F.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.cinemascore.com/publicsearch/index/title/ |title= Cinemascore |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20181220122629/https://www.cinemascore.com/publicsearch/index/title/ |archive-date= 2018-12-20 |access-date= 2019-08-25 }}</ref>

[[Roger Ebert]] of the ''[[Chicago Sun-Times]]'' gave the film a rating of four stars out of four, writing:
{{blockquote|After seeing ''Awakenings'', I read [the book], to know more about what happened in that Bronx hospital. What both the movie and the book convey is the immense courage of the patients and the profound experience of their doctors, as in a small way they reexperienced what it means to be born, to open your eyes and discover to your astonishment that "you" are alive.<ref>{{cite news |date= December 20, 1990 |last= Ebert |first= Roger |author-link= Roger Ebert |title= Awakenings |url= https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/awakenings-1990 |newspaper= [[Chicago Sun-Times]] |access-date= August 24, 2019 }}</ref>}}

[[Owen Gleiberman]] of ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' praised the film's performances, citing,
{{blockquote|There's a raw, subversive element in De Niro's performance: He doesn't shrink from letting Leonard seem grotesque. Yet ''Awakenings'', unlike the infinitely superior ''[[Rain Man]]'', isn't really built around the quirkiness of its lead character. The movie views Leonard piously; it turns him into an icon of ''feeling.'' And so even if you're held (as I was) by the acting, you may find yourself fighting the film's design.<ref>{{cite magazine |date=December 21, 1990 |last= Gleiberman |first= Owen |author-link= Owen Gleiberman |title= Awakenings Review |url= https://ew.com/article/1990/12/21/awakenings/ |magazine= [[Entertainment Weekly]] |access-date= August 24, 2019 }}</ref>}}

[[Oliver Sacks]], the author of the memoir on which the film is based, "was pleased with a great deal of [the film]", explaining,
{{blockquote|I think in an uncanny way, De Niro did somehow feel his way into being Parkinsonian. So much so that sometimes when we were having dinner afterwards I would see his foot curl or he would be leaning to one side, as if he couldn't seem to get out of it. I think it was uncanny the way things were incorporated. At other levels I think things were sort of sentimentalized and simplified somewhat.<ref>{{cite news|last=Garner|first=Dwight|title=The last curious man|url=http://www.salon.com/1996/12/23/sacks961223/|work=[[Salon (website)|Salon]]|access-date=February 16, 2013|date=December 23, 1996}}</ref>}}

[[Desson Howe]] of ''[[The Washington Post]]'' said that the film's tragic aspects did not live up to the strength in its humor, saying,

{{blockquote|When nurse Julie Kavner (another former TV being) delivers the main Message (life, she tells Williams, is "given and taken away from all of us"), it doesn't sound like the climactic point of a great movie. It sounds more like a line from one of the more sensitive episodes of ''[[Laverne & Shirley|Laverne and Shirley]]''.<ref>{{cite news|last=Howe|first=Desson|title='Awakenings'|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/awakeningspg13howe_a0b2d4.htm|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|access-date=February 16, 2013|date=January 11, 1991}}</ref>}}

Similarly, [[Janet Maslin]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' concluded her review by stating,
{{blockquote|''Awakenings'' works harder at achieving such misplaced liveliness than at winning its audience over in other ways.<ref>{{cite news|last=Maslin|first=Janet|title=Movie Review – Awakenings|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C0CE4D6113CF933A15751C1A966958260|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=February 16, 2013|date=December 20, 1990}}</ref>}}