1. The Cure (1995) .... Erik ¨ year: 1995
   Eleven-year-old Dexter (Joseph Mazzello) has AIDS. But that hardly matters to Erik (Brad Renfro), an adolescent transplanted to Minnesota, where he becomes Dexter's neighbor and develops a kinship with him over the course of a summer. When the duo reads a tabloid article trumpeting a New Orleans' doctor's cure for AIDS, they set off on a raft trip down the Mississippi River -- à la Huck Finn -- in this wistful film from director Peter Horton.

2. For emotional thematic elements, and for language

3. ¨ director: Peter Horton
   ¨ main cast:

   		year: 1995 ¨ director: Peter Horton ¨ main cast: Brad Renfro ............ Erik Joseph Mazello ............ Dexter Annabella Sciorra ............ Linda Diana Scarwid ............ Gail
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    synopsis

    Dexter, age 11, who has AIDS, and his next door neighbor Eric, a little older and much bigger, become best friends. Eric also becomes closer to Dexter's mother than to his own, who is neglectful and bigoted and violently forbids their friendship upon learning of it. When they read that a doctor in distant New Orleans claims to have found a cure for AIDS, the boys leave home on their own, planning to float down the Mississippi river and find him.

    awards

    In 1995 Brad won 'Young Star award - Best Performance by a Young Actor in a Drama Film'  for his role as Erik.

    reviews

    Ø Chemistry is Just Right in 'The Cure' by John Hartl Steven Spielberg's E.T. was sometimes criticized for the fact that it was almost too good at creating a special friendship between a fatherless white boy and a cute alien. Why couldn't the outsider have been an African-American boy, or a Native American child, or a dyslexic kid, or someone else who had been ostracized for likelier reasons? The fantasy was just dandy, but it was so convincing that some critics wondered why Spielberg couldn't have grounded it more in the suburban reality he'd established so meticulously. 'The Cure', which Spielberg briefly considered directing, almost plays like an answer to those questions. It also deals with the emotional needs of fatherless boys and their single mothers, but here the "alien" is Dexter, an 11-year-old boy who has contracted AIDS through a transfusion. Shunned and taunted by his peers, he is befriended by Erik, a rebellious neighbor boy who feels almost equally alienated. Despite the objections of Erik's prejudiced, workaholic mother (Diana Scarwid), who scares Erik with her notions that HIV travels in the air, Dexter and Erik quickly become inseparable friends. Convinced that a cure for AIDS has been discovered by a New Orleans doctor, they take off down the Mississippi from their Midwest homes, first on a raft, then hitching a ride on a boat. Screenwriter Robert Kuhn conveniently forgets the villain of the piece, Erik's mother, for long stretches, especially after the boys return from their river trip. She's usually brought in to cause conflict, make things difficult for Erik and antagonize Dexter's mother (Annabella Sciorra), and she's never quite believable.Kuhn also has a tendency to idealize his boys. If you found the kids in 'Stand by Me' a little too good to be true, you may have a similar problem with Dexter and Erik. Still, Erik does exhibit a welcome unpredictable streak that comes out in scenes like the one in which he makes peace with Dexter's tormentors, then stirs up trouble all over again by launching a well-aimed rock at one of them. Brad Renfro, the actor who plays him, makes the most of such perverse episodes, which demonstrate that Erik is still a child, even if he's an unusually sensitive one. Renfro, who made his film debut last year in The Client, resembles an 11-year-old Ethan Hawke, and he has a similar ability to hold the screen. Joseph Mazzello, who plays Dexter, is the more disciplined actor, and the contrast between their styles gives the movie an interesting tension. It probably wouldn't have worked at all if they'd switched roles, but the casting and the chemistry here seem just right, particularly when Mazzello is delivering a monologue about his fear of death and infinity. Renfro's response seems remarkably spontaneous, as do his juvenile pranks when he visits Dexter in the hospital. As a first-time director, Peter Horton is overly fond of attention-getting visual-aural transitions, but he stays focused on the boys' relationship, and that's what counts. The movie earns its tears, which were copious at the preview screening I attended.

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    Ø 'The Cure' review by Bruce Kirkland, Toronto Sun The Cure- the new movie, not the veteran rock band - is one of those no-star, small scale, too intimate movies that, at first blush, seems to belong on TV. The lead actors are a pair of kids, Joseph Mazzello, who played the overbearing dino expert youngster in 'Jurassic Park', and Brad Renfro, the youth caught in the crunch in the thriller 'The Client'. These are strong credits, but hardly enough to carry a whole movie. The Cure is also the feature film directorial debut of a former TV actor, Peter Horton of thirtysomething, and obviously he is still learning the medium. But sometimes, even in this age of extravaganza, small is better than big. Especially when a heart beats at the core of a heart-tugging little story. Simply put, although there are complicated shadings hiding behind the glare of the obvious, this is the story of the friendship of a smartass but spirited kid with his new next-door neighbor, a child suffering from AIDS. Renfro plays the healthy kid with a charming melange of naivete, attitude and generosity of spirit. Mazzello is heart-breakingly evocative as the sick boy, without bringing up the thousand-violins woe-is-me cliche. Written by Robert Kuhn with an eye to educating the ignorant without getting too pedantic about it, The Cure charts how these two buddies explore their friendship in normal kid ways - through games, spats, goofing off, dealing with their single moms and standing up to the town bullies - and in ways specific to an AIDS victim - the sick kid gets tired, afraid and lonely. There are some unreal passages, especially when they pull a Huckleberry Finn and go down river towards New Orleans in a flimsy raft. The goal is a New Orleans doctor who has announced "the cure" for AIDS. Unfortunately, they learned about the charlatan in a supermarket tabloid. This will be a fiasco. Nevertheless, off they go and Horton starts to lose his movie as it slips off into something else again. Nevertheless, he finally gets it back and we're back into the heart of the matter. It helps that there are some interesting adult support players: Annabella Sciorra as Mazzello's mom, Diana Scarwid as Renfro's mom, and Bruce Davison as the AIDS doctor. Only Scarwid has a completely shallow and underwritten character and she still manages to bring a little life to the role. The Cure is not a cure for what ails. But it tells a good story in a heartfelt way, shedding a little light on a very contemporary issue.

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    Ø The Cure review by Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times. April, 1995 There are three moments of perfect truth in "The Cure." There are several passages that are very moving. And then there's an impossible story that plays like a cross between a Disease of the Week movie and "The Goonies." It's possible that moviegoers in their earlier teens - the target audience - will like it a lot. I was derailed by the silly stuff, and by the movie's conviction that it's funny to play practical jokes about death. The movie takes place in a small Minnesota town where young Erik (Brad Renfro) has recently moved with his newly divorced mom (Diana Scarwid). Next door, behind a tall wooden fence, lives a boy named Dexter (Joseph Mazzello), who contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion. They're about the same age, but Dexter, who is very small, explains cheerfully: "If you look at the lower limit of what's considered normal for my age, I'm only 4 inches shorter. Bullies at the school torment Erik as a "faggot" for being friends with Dexter, and Erik's own mother advises him to keep his distance, which she defines as 7 feet. But the two boys become best friends, and Dexter's mother (Annabella Sciorra) comes to love the rough-edged kid who has befriended her son. Strange, how real the Sciorra character seems, and how unconvincing Erik's mom is (she spends the movie drinking, smoking and being mean-spirited). Meanwhile, the boys are inspired by a movie they see on TV ("Medicine Man," with Sean Connery finding a miracle cure in the jungle). Erik involves Dexter in harebrained home brew AIDS cures, including experiments with "The Periodic Table of the Candies." (The theory here is that combinations of candies can cure AIDS; in practice, the scene plays like product placement for Butterfinger bars.) These scenes have a natural warmth, helped by convincing performances by Renfro, the non-pro actor discovered in "The Client," and Mazzello, who never makes a play for sympathy. I liked their theoretical discussion of whether a lion or a shark would win in a fight. But come on - are we really supposed to believe it when the kids read in a supermarket tabloid that a New Orleans doctor has discovered a cure for AIDS, and then they run away from home to float 1,200 miles down the Mississippi to find him? Wouldn't there be a media storm and a manhunt? How far do you think two kids would get on a raft, towing an inflatable crocodile behind them? The plot then provides a couple of shifty pleasure-boat types who agree to carry them as passengers (see above objections), and, yes, the plot actually involves a chase into an Abandoned Warehouse, the desperate screenwriter's friend. The speedboat trip is somewhat redeemed by a priceless exchange between young Dexter and a bimbo picked up along the way. (He: "You misspelled your tattoo. It doesn't say `Angel.' It says `Angle.' " She: "I'm aware of that now.")  The three perfect scenes are clustered toward the end. One comes after an unconvincing scene in which Dexter uses his disease to scare off a bad guy, and then is shaken to realize his blood is "poison." Another comes when a doctor (Bruce Davison) explains why he believes in miracles. The third is a confrontation between the two mothers. Those scenes have a greatness to them. But they fit uneasily into the same movie with stock villains, phony showdowns and the unlikely trip down the river. And then there's that series of practical jokes that Erik and Dexter play in the hospital; they're a miscalculation so enormous they destroy what should have been the most important scenes.

47. The Client (1994) .... Mark Sway¨ year: 1994
    ¨ di
    When he witnesses a murder, an 11-year-old is torn between what he knows and what he can never tell. This whirlwind thriller delivers all-out, moment-by-moment suspense! From the John Grisham novel. Includes three trailers.
    or: Joel Schumacher

    For a child in jeopardy and brief language

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    ¨ main cast:

Brad Renfro	.........	Mark Sway
Susan Sarandon	.........	Reggie Love
Tommy Lee Jones	.........	Roy Foltrigg
Mary-Louise Parker	.........	Dianne Sway

THE CLIENT gallery »

¨ promo shots & posters

¨ behind the scenes interview with brad

¨ movie photos

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