Lorenzo’s Oil DVD Review

Reviewed by David Savage

Starring: Nick Nolte, Susan Sarandon
Directed by: George Miller
Certificate: 12
Running Time: 129 minutes
Format: DVD
Release Date: 2 November 2015

Lorenzo’s Oil is based on a true story of two parents desperately trying to save their son’s life against all odds.

After returning to Washington from 3 years on the Comoros Islands, East Africa in July 1983 3 months later 5 year old Lorenzo’s behaviour starts to change from good to bad. His parents, Augusto (Nick Nolte) and Michaela Odone (Susan Sarandon) and told he is hyperactive until things get worse and is finally diagnosed with a very rare terminal disease, Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), that only affects boys between the ages 5-10 and is a degenerative brain disorder. 5 year old Lorenzo was given just 2 years to live with no treatment available.

Augusto and Michaela set out to save their child despite the opinion of the doctors and specialists and with no medical training spend years reading about the disease, its effects and lab studies on the long chain saturated fats that are the cause of the disease. They go head-to-head with their doctors, specialists and support groups who are unwilling or unable to help, set up a symposium to get the leading ALD doctors all in one place and eventually with the help of a London based biochemist (Don Suddaby, who plays himself in the film) synthesise the pure oil (erucic acid) that became Lorenzo’s Oil.

Lorenzo’s Oil is a powerful drama about the lengths a parent will go to save their child, the strain it has on their lives and the people close to them. Despite being told there was no treatment available the Odones’ needed to discover for themselves the cause of the disease and know for themselves why it did what it did in order to try and find a way to save Lorenzo, which they did (at the making of the film Lorenzo was still alive at the age of 14 and after looking it up Lorenzo lived until he was 30)!

Although I wasn’t sure that Nick Nolte would be right for the part of Augusto Odone, a soft spoken Italian, he was excellent while Susan Sarandon as Michaela was outstanding and I can see why she was nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award.

Rating: 5/5

RRP: £9.99

Available to buy from Amazon here.