This movie will make you start doing hard work (happily)

So one day I was looking a different movie to watch and this movie caught my attention on Netflix. The preview showed 2 new born babies connected with their skull:

This gave me a shock, made me pause and left me thinking how would they actually live once they grew up?

Imagining life attached with another body was very difficult. And this made me wonder what's this movie is about? The description just informed that it was about the story of Dr. Ben Carson. That information wasn't enough for me to start watching the film but my mind had questions like: How will these 2 babies live when they grow up? Does any doctor even know what to say in this case? And is this something that's even taught in medical school?

All these question created enough curiosity in me to watch this movie. And it was one of the best decisions I made. This movie turned out to be phenomenal!

It wasn't a documentary or boring biography. It was a journey. Journey of Dr. Ben going from a zero to a world hero.

The movie begins with a pregnant woman receiving some news from the doctor. And in the next shot, we could clearly see the woman thinking of giving up her life by jumping from a floor.

This scene was so very well executed that I couldn't help but praise the director right then and there. The entire shot was merely of 3-5 seconds but coming up with the idea of camera angle and then the artist's way of expressing their thoughts through their facial expression was pure genius work done by both.

This scene was of the parents receiving news of their twins having connected skull and the movie progresses to show Dr. Ben getting to know about this case. He seemed to unsure how to take this case, as was I thinking how could any doctor help with this.

The movie then cuts back to Dr. Ben's childhood school days and I understood the movie is taking non-linear storytelling approach (which is my favourite) rather than making it chronological. This further deepened my interest.

The movie then continues on Dr. Ben's journey in school where he undergoes a radical transformation with her mother's guidance (and an inspiring event at church). Although, this movie is about Dr. Ben but what fascinated me the most was Dr. Ben's mother. The way she did the upbringing of her kids is marvellous. Even though in the movie she was inspiring her son Ben, but sitting across the screen I got inspired too. She filled me up with the direction and the will to take steps to become better.

And this wasn't just my take.

After watching this movie, I decided to show it to my younger sister and she liked it as well, that too within first few minutes. And I hadn't told her anything about Dr. Ben's mother, yet she reached the same conclusion as mine. She paused the movie midway through and told me how amazing she found the mother to be and how inspired she is to work hard every day!

That moment: of 2 people reaching the same conclusion told me the scriptwriters, director and the actors have done a phenomenal job in getting the message across. This makes me confident in recommending this movie to everyone.

After watching the movie, I started taking action in my own life to continue to study, learn and work hard to make meaningful progress in my career and in my life. Starting this movie review series was one of those steps. Such is the power of this movie.

The actress Kimberly Elise, delivered a fantastic performance in playing Dr. Ben's mother. And so did Cuba Gooding Jr. The way he delivered his role with the calm, composed and peaceful manner of Dr. Ben is very admiring. If more people could learn to communicate with the same ease and calmness the way Cuba did in this movie, this world would become much more peaceful.

The movie shows Dr. Ben's journey from school to college to becoming a doctor in Johns Hopkins Hospital while facing racial discrimination and anger issues in his teens. And it covers his contributions in normalising hemispherectomy and separation of conjoint twins.

The movie shows surgery scenes which are all executed so very well. Internal organs of the human body are shown with much attention to detail. If you get sick seeing operation scenes then you may want to skip those scenes but I would encourage to not give up on this movie altogether just because of this. I too thought I would get sick seeing those scenes but that didn't happen. The entire filming was executed in such a clean manner that the feeling of "sickness" never came. Even my sister also didn't felt any discomfort. So chances are you will be safe as well.

The movie covers 2 major operations and I wouldn't want to give spoilers about them here. But what I can say is that even thinking about the idea of those 2 operations is beyond comprehension let alone actually doing them. And Dr. Ben not only thought about them but actually executed on them as well.

The operation on the twins connected with skull required continued surgery for 22 hours!, which when we think about it is such a long time. The movie kept me on the edge to watch what happens next in the procedure, and seeing the level of complexity and care that goes in each step just increases respect for every person in medical profession: from nurses to doctors to surgeons.

Without a doubt this movie is a solid 9.8/10 and makes anyone watching it feel inspired, motivated and touched.

The actors, scriptwriters and the director did a phenomenal and fantastic job.

Kudos to everyone in the crew!

I've already watched this movie twice and am ready to watch it for the third.

Until next time,

Pratyush Goel