Alternate Best Actor 1990: Robin Williams in Awakenings

Robin Williams did not receive an Oscar nomination, despite winning NBR and being nominated for a Golden Globe, for portraying Dr. Malcolm Sayer in Awakenings. 

It speaks to the taste of at least a swathe of the academy in 1990 that within Robin Williams’s run with them from his first nomination in 1987 to his win in 1997 that they ignored him for this turn, despite the film being a top five favorite. Of course the obvious answer to this question is they nominated Robert De Niro for portraying the first man awakened by the experimental drug used on catatonic patients. Where we get the contrasting choice of performances where De Niro’s is the most overtly actorly performance in the film against Williams giving probably his most subtle turn from his initial breakout. In all of Williams’s Oscar nominated performance, before and after this film, there was a degree of Williams relying on his stand up presence overtly, something that made sense in some instances, Good Morning Vietnam where he played a comedic DJ, more than others, Dead Poet’s Society where Mr. Keating suddenly whips out Brando and Wayne impressions despite the character in no way acting like his sensibility during the rest of the film. Williams forgoes his expected Robin Williams persona fully and effectively though that doesn’t mean he entirely relieves himself of talents related to it. 

Williams constructs a specific character here that does utilize aspects of his talents one would’ve found in his stand-up performances, but entirely in service to the part. The impression abilities noted in his stand-up are featured here but wound naturally within the character of Dr. Sayer, as what Williams does here is technically taking upon the mannerisms of the real man which the character is based on Oliver Sacks, though I think one of the best decisions, in the long term, the film probably made was to rename the character. Williams though utilizes it well to convincingly establish the introverted initial research scientist. Where Williams consistently creates the certain mannerisms naturally into his performance within his very withdrawn and specific physical manner of the man always backing off it would seem, looking down, and almost hiding within himself. An aspect further emphasized in his cadence that is very different from Williams’s frequent larger than life delivery, as brings to life Dr. Malcolm Sayer in earnest. He very much does construct him using those impression skills yet funnels them all properly into the character in a way that just further brings him to life and more immediately grants us a sense of who this guy is before he even takes on what is known as the chronic ward. 

Williams’s performance is effective in creating the struggle initially of Sayer as a man who struggles to connect with humans dealing with patients who often seemingly have no connection whatsoever. In fact his greatest enthusiasm early on is in a failed experiment with worms which is played for a comedic moment however it is easy to appreciate Williams creating the humor of the moment not by falling out of character but rather just showing purely who Sayer is by presenting this earnestness specifically in such a narrow decidedly non-human focus. Williams earns it all the more though by presenting genuine unease in the initial moments of dealing with suddenly hostile patients in the ward, which are the ones who bother to respond to Sayer, but also presenting this very subdued yet potent sense of empathy as he examines the catatonic patients. Williams does a lot with just his eyes in presenting the humanity within Sayer as he focuses on each person and senses that there may be more going on than just a hollow shell as many of his colleagues seem to suggest the people are. Projecting honesty within the moments of discovery certain specific reactions from the patients with this combination of surprise, fascination but also empathetic revelation. 

Eventually Sayer discovers enough to find an experimental drug he tests on one patient to see if it might cure them of their catatonic state, which it does for a man called Leonard (De Niro) who went into the state as a boy. This is where the film mostly shifts focus to De Niro portraying Leonard regaining his ability to communicate and then eventually slowly goes back to his state, in what, for me, sadly feels more so an actor’s showcase than something where I truly felt this was a person the whole time. Williams is very good though in accepting very much the part of the reactor to the seeming miracle change then tragic change. He never tries to make it about himself here, rather allowing himself to be the facilitator and the observer, in a dynamic way however in a way that very much opens the floor to whoever he's acting with in a given scene. Williams delivers a quiet passion in the moments of advocating for change. An interesting combination between anxiety and inspiration when seeing Leonard trying to embrace life that he seemingly is too meek to do so himself, and maybe most importantly brings such a palatable sense of warmth and fierce concern when Leonard starts to falter even lashing out at Sayer directly at one point. A scene that is over the top in many ways, but Williams is not one of them, as his taken aback reaction followed by a certain delivery of not wanting Leonard blamed feel so genuine even when the scene as a whole is not. Williams acts a convincing facilitator even for the inspirational final “what I learned” speech he’s given, which quite frankly eventually became a Robin Williams specific actor cliche as much as Brad Pitt’s eating, Tom Cruise’s running or Tom Hanks’s urinating. Regardless of where it would go I will say Williams does deliver to the best of his abilities in this instance by not overplaying it rather just bringing the quiet earnest passion that is bigger than what we saw at the start of the film, yet still feels true to the modest by nature character. Even in the character arc complete moment shortly later where Sayer asks one of the nurses out, Williams finds the right way to present Sayer’s directness. He speaks with a greater certainty for Sayer, he’s still very quiet, still largely internalized, yet earns the moment of the doctor embracing humans a bit more after his experience with the patients. Although I won’t say Awakenings is a great film, Williams does deliver one of his best dramatic turns by calming his more extroverted sensibilities to deliver a nuanced and genuine performance that better than anyone in the cast delivers honesty within the very sentimental approach of the film.