I had heard about this film for some time, mainly because of the leading actor and bits and pieces I had heard about the concept, I hoped it would be something I would enjoy, written by J.J. Abrams (Forever Young, Alias, Lost, Star Wars: The Force Awakens),directed by Mike Nichols (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Graduate, Closer, Charlie Wilson's War). Basically Henry Turner (Harrison Ford) is an ambitious and highly successful Manhattan lawyer, but he is obsessed with work and has a callous, narcissistic, and sometimes unethical nature. Henry being despicable and ruthless in the workplace, spending the majority of his time there leaves him little time to be with his prim socialite wife Sarah (Annette Bening) and troubled pre-teenage daughter Rachel (Mikki Allen). One night, Henry goes into a convenience store for cigarettes, there he interrupts a robbery, the Gunman (John Leguizamo) shoots Henry in the chest and head before fleeing. The bullet to the head hit Henry's right frontal lobe, and the bullet to the chest hit Henry's left subclavian vein, this means he experienced internal bleeding and a cardiac arrest, but more imminently he has suffered brain damage, losing the ability to move or speak, and suffers retrograde amnesia. With the help of a physical therapist Bradley (Bill Nunn),Henry slowly regains his movement and speech, returning home he is almost childlike, with Rachel teaching him to read, being impressed by his surroundings, and forming new friendships with his family and colleagues. Henry realises he does not like the person he was before the shooting, and she and her daughter have become much closer, she is not happy to be going to an out-of-town elite school for girls, as had been planned for her, Henry and Sarah also become much closer, returning to how passionate they felt when they first met, she suggests they should relocate to a smaller, less expensive residence. Henry is allowed to return to work at his firm, but his old assignments and large office are taken away, he is essentially only assigned busy work, he begins to realise he does not want to be a lawyer anymore, this is confirmed when he hears "friends" making derogatory comments about him at a dinner. Henry finds a letter to Sarah from a former colleague disclosing an affair, he is also approached by fellow attorney Linda (Rebecca Miller) who reveals that they also had an affair and had told her he would leave Sarah for her, this makes Henry have second thoughts about himself and his relationships. Henry gives documents from his last case that were suppressed by the firm to the plaintiff who was right all along, he apologises to them, in the end Henry resigns from the firm, says goodbye to Linda, returns to and reconciles with Sarah, realising everything with their lives, before the shooting, was wrong, and finally they withdraw Rachel from the school, Henry and her family all walk away happy. Also starring Donald Moffat as Charlie Cameron, James Rebhorn as Dr. Sultan, Aida Linares as Rosella, Elizabeth Wilson as Henry's secretary Jessica, Robin Bartlett as Phyllis, Bruce Altman as Henry's partner Bruce and John MacKay as George. Ford is often in roles showing not much emotion, so it is perhaps an odd choice for him to be a mean lawyer turning nice, Bening gets some good moments as his wife, it is a very simple story, it may have its flaws in terms of star power, some sympathy for the characters and some predictable bits, but can just get washed up in the glossiness of it, it is a nice enough story, a reasonable drama. Worth watching!

Henry Turner (Harrison Ford) is a ruthless arrogant lawyer. His wife Sarah (Annette Bening) is more concerned about appearance. Their daughter Rachel suffers quietly as the family rots from the inside. Henry is shot during a convenience store robbery. It leaves him with severe brain injury. Physical therapist Bradley (Bill Nunn) tries to help him recover. Along the way, he discovers some dark things about his life and tries to fix his family.

Henry is obviously annoying at the beginning. The most annoying part is when he starts berating the store robber. It's pushed too far. Then it tries to be a loving tribute to brain injuries. It's a fantastical fantasy where Henry's diminished capacity leads to redemption and salvation. That is also as annoying.

More specifically, there are a couple of other problems. The guy is barely able to read and yet he figures out the one important piece of evidence in a stack of files. There is a way to save it if the daughter helps him and together they find the clue. The Ritz cracker is a horrible idea. Henry's injuries are way too severe for this movie to make sense. It's also way too cute wrapping everything up.

I can excuse Mike Nichols because the acting is pretty good. He is most known for getting great actors to do good work. Indeed, Harrison Ford does good work. The writing from J. J. Abrams is horrendous. The story is completely misguided. There may be a way into the story by making the wife Sarah as the main character. The movie needs a giant rewrite.

One problem I had with this movie was too-high of an expectation. A good friend said it was one of his "all-time favorite films" so I was expecting something super. This was good, but not of that caliber.

The story was a good one: a ruthless lawyer gets shot and brain-injured and is forced to re- start his life. In the process, he becomes a good-hearted, nice man. This would be an excellent "family film" except for needless profanity and usage of the Lord's name in vain. Much of the language comes out of the mouth of the therapist. It's too bad they didn't tone the language down so more people could have enjoyed this good-message film.

Warning: the film drags in spots, too. However, the good acting (Harrison Ford and Annette Bening provide attractive, solid lead performances) and the good story make this a good film overall. I wouldn't mind seeing this again.