Critical Review “Gifted Hands”

Critical Review

“Gifted Hands”

(By: Suprayoga)

A. Directed by                                    : Thomas Carter

B. Written by                          : John Pielmeier

C. Theme                                 : Life Struggle (a true story)

D. Characters

1. Major character              :

Benjamin Carson (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is a famous humble talented doctor.

2. Supporting Characters   :

Sonya Carson (Kimberly Elise), Benjamin Carson’s mother, dropped out in the third grade, illiterate.

Candy carson (Aunjanue Ellis) is Benjamin Carson’s wife.

Teen Bennie (Gus Hoffman) has bad temper.

Bennie (Jaishon Fisher) is a smart diligent boy

                                                 

E. Setting                               

1. Setting of Place                   :

Ulm West Germany

Detroit

Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland

2. Setting of Time                   : 1961-1987

F. Point of View                     : First Person Point of View. The narrator involves himself in the story rather than outside. In this movie, Ben Carson narrates himself in the story.

G. Symbol                              :

1. When Ben Carson won an award at Jr. High Graduation for best student, a teacher got extremely angry at the awards ceremony and told all the other kids that because Ben Carson was black and from a single parent household. It symbolizes “discrimination’.

H. Tone                                  : Inspiring, Encouraging

I. Message                               : Life is a struggle.

                                                  External motivation is important, but self conscious is much

   more important.

  Sharing success is blessing.

J. Plot 

The movie begins in present day 1987, where Dr. Ben Carson (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) goes to Germany to visit a couple named Peter and Augusta Rausch, who have twins conjoined at the head. Ben knows that chances of saving them both will be at risk, because one baby always dies in situations like that. Ben agrees to do the operation, but he will wait four months so he can come up with a plan to save them both.
While looking into some of his books, the movie flashes back to the year 1961, where 11 year old Ben Carson (Jaishon Fisher) starts out life as an African American child from a one-parent home with failing grades at school. Ben has an older brother named Curtis. His mother, who dropped out in the third grade, starts making decisions for him. When her boys need to learn multiplication tables, she has them swear to learn them while she is going to check herself into a mental institution. When she sees her two sons' success hindered by TV, she schedules timings to watch tv, boys show great interest in watching only a quiz show later on and commands them to read two books per week from the library and give her a book report, she also moves them to better schools.
Meanwhile as time passes, Ben learns how to multiply and to spell. He starts to explore the world of books, and he grows in it. He begins to show a temper; Ben almost hits his mom with a hammer while arguing with her about what pants he should wear for school and almost kills his best friend as a teenager. His friend was saved as the knife that he used to stab him broke when it hit the buckle of his belt.
Having almost killed someone because of his temper, he realizes that he can't do anything about it. He runs to his room and cries out to God, praying that He delivers him from his temper.
He becomes the top student in his eighth grade class, third in his high school class and with hard work and strong determination, he got a scholarship to college, passed the MCAT and went on to medical school. He meets his girlfriend Candy, whom he falls in love with. One day, when he struggles with a test study, she helps him out and Ben eventually passes and gets an A.
In the year 1976, Carson faced adversity from fellow doctors and students while working at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. It is here where he performed an operation as a resident without supervision, risking his medical career to save a man's life. Then in the year of 1985, he saves the life of a girl who has seizures 100 times a day, by removing only half of her brain that was responsible for seizures, procedure called 'hemispherectomy". Candy later becomes pregnant with twins, but loses the babies from a bloody miscarriage. Ben's mother later moves in with the family. This movie is such an inspirational movie. It is worth seeing.