| Gifted Hands: The Benjamin Carson Story | |
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DVD cover |
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| Directed by | Thomas Carter |
| Produced by | Lomas Carter |
| Written by | John Pielmeier |
| Starring | Cuba Gooding Jr. Kimberly Elise Aunjanue Ellis |
| Distributed by | TNT |
| Release date(s) | February 7, 2009 |
| Running time | 86 mins. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story is a 2009 movie directed by Thomas Carter, starring Academy Award winner Cuba Gooding Jr. and NAACP Image Award winner Kimberly Elise. It is a movie based on the life story of world-renowned neurosurgeon Ben Carson from 1961 to 1987. A Johnson and Johnson Spotlight Presentation, the movie aired on TNT on Saturday, February 7, 2009. It was also made in to an autobiography about his life as a kid to a surgeon.
Its title was re-used from a 1992 direct-to-video documentary about Ben Carson released by Zondervan.
Contents |
The movie begins in present day 1987, where Dr. Ben Carson (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) goes to Germany to visit a couple named Peter and Augusta Rausch, who have twins conjoined at the head. Ben knows that chances of saving them both will be at risk, because one baby always dies in situations like that. Ben agrees to do the operation, but he will wait four months so he can come up with a plan to save them both. While looking into some of his books, the movie flashes back to the year 1961, where 11 year old Ben Carson (Jaishon Fisher) starts out life as an African American child from a one-parent home with failing grades at school. Ben has an older brother named Curtis. His mother, who dropped out in the third grade, starts making decisions for him. When her boys need to learn multiplication tables, she has them swear to learn them while she is gone to check herself into a mental institution. When she sees her two sons' success hindered by TV, she schedules timings to watch tv, boys show great interest in watching only a quiz show later on and commands them to read two books per week from the library and give her a book report, she also moves them to better schools.
Meanwhile as time passes, Ben learns how to multiply and to spell. He starts to explore the world of books, and he grows in it. He begins to show a temper; Ben almost hits his mom with a hammer while arguing with her about what pants he should wear for school and almost kills his best friend as a teenager. his friend was saved as knife that he used to stab him, hits buckle of his belt and breaks.
Having almost killed someone because of his temper, he realizes that he can't do anything about it. He runs to his room and cries out to God, praying that He delivers him from his temper.
He becomes the top student in his eighth grade class, third in his high school class and with hard work and strong determination, he got a scholarship to college, passed the MCAT and went on to medical school. He meets his girlfriend Candy, whom he falls in love with. One day, when he struggles with a test study, she helps him out and Ben eventually passes and gets an A.
In the year 1976, Carson faced adversity from fellow doctors and students while working at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. It is here where he performed an operation as a resident without supervision, risking his medical career to save a man's life. Then in the year of 1985, he saves the life of a girl who has seizures 100 times a day, by removing only half of her brain that was responsible for seizures, procedure called 'hemicerebrumectomy". Candy later becomes pregnant with twins, but loses the babies from a bloody miscarriage. Ben's mother later moves in with the family.
Then the movie goes back to where it began: the year of 1987. Ben is eventually convinced to operate on the two twins, and he manages to make the operation successful, and both twins are saved.
| Role | Cast | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Benjamin "Bennie" Carson | Cuba Gooding Jr. | Lead role |
| Sonya Carson | Kimberly Elise | Benjamin's mother |
| Candy Carson | Aunjanue Ellis | Bennie's girlfriend/wife |
| Teen Bennie | Gus Hoffman | Teenage Ben Carson |
| Bennie | Jaishon Fisher | Young Ben Carson |
The film employs scenes from old television series, The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, The Donna Reed Show, Father Knows Best, and The General Electric College Bowl, when hosted by Allen Ludden.
The movie has received generally positive reviews from critics, and currently holds a 63/100 rating on metacritic.com, based on 9 reviews. The Orlando Sentinel says, "It's the perfect movie for a country challenged by its new president to do better." The Hollywood Reporter writes, "The film is so good that a little immodesty is not only acceptable but understandable." On the other side, The Washington Post states, "It is a treacly, plodding affair stunted by awkward transitions and a syrupy soundtrack."
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