Watch Flowers for Algernon For Free

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Saw this on TV and was absorbed all the time, even though I'd read the short story. Sure, there are a few differences from the book, but I think that made it better as a movie - a movie that followed the book absolutely could have been more intellectually satisfying but would not have been as emotionally involving.Definitely worth seeing, but why oh why did they have to make the 'background' music so loud that it was intrusive! It spoilt some scenes that would have been perfectly all right without any music at all. Because of this, I have given it an 8 instead of a 9, and I don't think that it would seem so good on a big screen.

Matthew Modine is credible as the mental retard who becomes smart, albeit briefly, and then dumb again. On the whole, this is an interesting take on how genetic engineering and its wonders can still fail to save humankind. The acting of both Modine and Kelli Williams lends strong weight and makes this movie very watchable. I don't think you would classify this as an excellent movie -- Modine is respectable but it's hard to really think he was convincing acting retarded -- but as a TV movie it was a touching 2 hours.

I must admit, the only reason I taped this movie was to see the spellbinding Kelli Williams, from "The Practice." I had no clue what the movie was about, but I figured she could carry the movie no matter what. Besides, I haven't read the book so I knew my view would not be "tainted" in that sense.Anyway, I was floored by the performances of both Modine and Williams. Modine's performance was good -- at no point was I convinced he was really retarded, but his transition from retarded to gifted and back again was well done. Williams acts with such sincerity and purity, it's easy for me to forget she's acting. Her performance was so genuine, at the end it actually felt as though she had actually experienced the horrible loss that her character experienced. She faces her loneliness utterly alone; she realizes this, and portrays it to a T.If you missed this film, I hope someday you will get a chance to see it again. If not, at least read the book. I know I will.

The case makes this film touching and believable. It could easily become just a soap opera, but with the central character in the deft hands of Matthew Modine, the story comes to life.It is OF MICE AND MEN and FRANKENSTEIN blended together but with a more positive outcome. The desire of science to "improve" human life is presented here as a mixed blessing. Viewed this way, the story becomes a parable about what is truly important and meaningful in life.