THE CURE
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1995 Scott Renshaw
Starring: Joseph Mazzello, Brad Renfro, Annabella Sciorra,
Diana Scarwid.
Screenplay: Robert Kuhn.
Director: Peter Horton.
There is a scene in THE CURE in which two boys face down a trio of taunting bullies. One of the boys has AIDS; the other boy, who earlier in the film had been afraid of catching the disease, is now his best friend. The newly-enlightened boy lectures the bullies about how the disease could have happened to anyone, and the chastened bullies walk away. You might not be surprised to find such a scene in a movie like THE CURE, but you probably would be surprised to find it only twenty minutes into the film. While it is exceptionally well-acted, THE CURE rambles on for far too long without a sense of purpose, like an attempt to stretch an "Afterschool Special" into a feature film.
Brad Renfro plays Erik, a young loner coping with the absence of his father and an alcoholic mother (Diana Scarwid). His new neighbor is Dexter (Joseph Mazzello), a boy who contracted the AIDS virus from a blood transfusion, and his mother (Annabella Sciorra). Although Erik is initially confrontational, the two boys without any other friends soon develop a close friendship. Among the activities they share is an attempt of their own to find a cure for the fatal disease, and when Erik sees an article in a tabloid newspaper about a "miracle cure" found in Louisiana, he becomes determined to get it for Dexter. Leaving their home in Minnesota, Erik and Dexter travel south in an attempt to find the key to saving Dexter's life.
To THE CURE's credit, the most important thing about it, the relationship between Erik and Dexter, is also the best thing about it. Brad Renfro, who made an impressive debut in THE CLIENT, has the more dynamic role of Erik, the cocky inveterate liar. There is an edge to his acting which is uncommon in younger actors who generally seem to eager to have the audience adore them, and he uses that to his advantage as the troubled young man in need of a friend. Mazzello is more than equal to him, granting Erik his tall tales and half-baked explanations like only young best friends do. Their rapport is genuine and very touching, and complemented by the fine supporting work of Diana Scarwid and Annabella Sciorra as their mothers. Sciorra in particular has some great moments as she becomes a kind of surrogate mother to Erik.
What sabotages the emotional impact of their friendship is THE CURE's clumsy and episodic story arc. By the time the aforementioned scene between Erik, Dexter and the three bullies occurs, everyone in the story who is really going to do any changing has already changed. There is nothing to do with them but send them off on a series of adventures, some of which are mildly interesting but don't really have a dramatic purpose. While Erik and Dexter are well-acted and sympathetic characters, at a certain point it becomes clear that all we are really going to be doing for the rest of THE CURE's running time is waiting for Dexter to die.
And what a wait it is. There is manipulation, and then there is what THE CURE traffics in, a lingering conclusion in the hospital which attempts to pull the tears out of you with an industrial strength vacuum cleaner. It seems as though screenwriter Robert Kuhn had an idea for a drama about AIDS and a drama about two friends on a journey, but neither one was long enough independently to turn into a feature. The problem is that THE CURE says nothing new about AIDS, and bails out on the potentially intriguing connection of absent fathers between the two boys. We never learn anything about where Dexter's father is, and the anticipated meeting between Erik and his father in New Orleans never materializes. It's a shame, because director Peter Horton (TV's "thirtysomething") has a deft touch with much of the film's potentially pathos-inducing material. But when you're playing the AIDS card, you had better have a really strong hand. THE CURE has one solid pair of aces, and a lot of spaces.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 miracle cures: 5.
-- Scott Renshaw Stanford University Office of the General Counsel
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