Kino Lorber releases the Blu-ray edition of a Universal Pictures medical drama that received healthy critical reviews in 1992 but sadly anemic box-office returns. This is the true story of Augusto and Michaela Odone (played by Nick Nolte and Susan Sarandon), a cosmopolitan, Washington D.C.-based couple in the 1980s whose small son Lorenzo (Zack O'Malley Greenburg) developed ALD, a rare, congenital, horrifically degenerative neurological disease. Not widespread or known enough to be a serious concern for the mainstream medical establishment, ALD is an automatic death sentence in a matter of months.
With no medical training and against all doctors' advice, the Odones themselves plunged into research, networking, and lobbying. They painstakingly researched and concocted a revolutionary serum to keep ALD sufferers alive. Such wrenching material would be dramatic in any treatment, but writer/director George Miller (creator of the Mad Max series) modulates his usually operatic style to intelligently increase the intensity and emotions. Actors shine through with top performances, especially Sarandon, whose concern for the stricken child nears madness.
In a commentary track, cinephile/author Peter Tonguette – who admits this is a superior specimen of what falls into the "disease-of-the-week" genre – says much credit should go to Nolte, projecting strength and intelligence in a performance that had many other critics bemused by the actor's unaccustomed Italian accent. Quoting earlier interviews, Tonguette emphasizes that a long interval happened between Lorenzo's Oil and Miller's earlier film, 1987's The Witches of Eastwick, which was not a happy experience for the director, who characteristically lets long intervals pass before taking up another project that interests him. Tonguette also offers an early opinion that Lorenzo's Oil has added meaning in the age of the COVID-19 virus.
Sadly, since the film's release, both Odones and Lorenzo have passed away. Don Suddaby, an elderly British biochemist who helped formulate the precious medicine, amusingly portrays himself. Recommended. (Aud: P)