The Cure
1995 · Directed by Peter Horton
Original language: English
- drama
- family
The story
Erik, a loner, finds a friend in Dexter, an eleven-year-old boy with AIDS. They vow to find a cure for AIDS together and save Dexter's life in an eventful summer.
What it’s like
Sun-bleached summer light over a Minnesota river town, with long afternoons of bicycles, dusty roads, and water glinting off the Mississippi-side banks. The palette is warm and unhurried, and the camera tends to stay with the boys in open, everyday spaces rather than cutting fast. The mood is tender and wistful, with an undercurrent of grief that grows as the summer goes on. Its emotional register is sincere rather than cynical, and the rhythm is loose, drifting between quiet companionship and sharper moments of fear and prejudice from the adults around them. The intensity is low in terms of physical violence and gore, with no graphic scenes; the difficulty comes from illness, a child's visible decline, and the cruelty of a community reacting to AIDS with suspicion. The sadness is heavy but never sensational. It suits a rainy Sunday or a quiet evening when you want something earnest and affecting. It is for viewers who like coming-of-age stories about an unlikely friendship between two boys, and who can sit with a melancholy, hopeful drama about loyalty and loss.
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