Regarding Henry Essay Example

initiated by Bradley (Bill Nunn), a very positive physical therapist whose character demonstrates the importance of friendship and support in the rehabilitation process.

Bradley is in some way the secret hero in the movie, helping people like Henry on their way back into their lives. He is doing that so well because he himself suffers from a disability that destroyed his dreams in the past. Bradley always wanted to be a football player but had to surrender from this plan due to a bad knee injury years ago. Instead of suffering and wallow in self-pity, he found a new purpose for his life in his job as a therapist who can help other people in need.

Bradley is Henry’s biggest help on his long way of recovery. The process of recovery however is portrayed somehow superficial in the movie.Although the story shows the difficulties and enormous effort Henry has to make to learn walking and talking again, this aspect of recovery is portrayed in a very (maybe even too! ) optimistic way. The film shows relatively fast progress in regaining almost full physical abilities without considering frustrating backstrokes many people in real life certainly have to deal with.

The scene where Henry does his first steps with the walker for instance, gives the impression that such recovery can be done fast and easily and is followed by immediate feeling of success.I strongly doubt that this is the case in a majority of rehabilitation patients. Beside the physical ones, the major disabilities portrayed in the movie are of mental nature. After his accident Henry suffers from traumatic brain injury with almost complete memory loss, inability to talk

and read, and a significant change in personality.

However, the disability is presented in a quite positive way. Henry is in fact a much nicer person after the brain injury than he was before. His complete change in personality makes him a warm and emotional person who discovers the importance of friendship and family values.While he is learning live from the scratch again he develops a loving and caring character that is a much better father and husband than he ever was before.

In contrast to being positive for his personality, this change in character has bad effects on his professional life and finally costs him his job as a lawyer. Here the film leaves open what negative social and financial effects that loss of job eventually could have, even after having found private happiness. Overall the movie portrays several aspects of disabilities in a realistic, but quite optimistic way.Although marginally discussing some negative consequences of such an injury, the plot of the story is generally very optimistic showing a positive recovery and disability development. Hence, even if the story is maybe a bit too optimistic to be totally realistic, showing the helplessness (but also the rehabilitation capacity! ) of a previously so tough and successful man can leave the viewers of the film with a good understanding and a better thoughtfulness for disabled people.

One reason for this is the awareness that - as the story demonstrates alarmingly - everybody can become that helpless from one moment to the other.