I was blubbing like an idiot during the last ten minutes of this exceptional piece of television. I have to say that the idea of sitting down to view 90 minutes of what was bound to be pretty depressing material on a Sunday, was not a welcome one. The thought of yet another, over worthy, BAFTA winning possibility did not enthuse me......However the end result knocked me for 6. This is some of the best television I have seen in ages. For years I was under the impression that all originality had left the BBC's drama department. Our Friends in the North was the last production that truly blew me away and that was 10 years ago. However faith is restored and honour is satisfied. David Tenant was incredible! So many actors I can think of would have really gone to town on a part like this, but never once did I see Mr Tenant as an actor or as the Doctor, all I saw was Alan Hamilton. I haven't had my heart wrenched this much since Daniel Craigs performance as Geordie Peacock all those years ago. Sarah Parish was also incredible and I really hope this role brings her better roles in the future. All of the cast were great but special mention must go to the director who really placed us inside Alans head. The toaster scene, in particular, made me feel quite queasy.
13 Reviews
amazing piece of drama
pmose5 March 2007
I'm so glad I taped this film when it came on BBC last month! It blew my mind, so gut wrenching and real. David Tennant is absolutely fabulous in this, even though his character isn't always that easy to like or identify with. The final scene where he plays the song just broke my heart, those eyes....
I'm guessing that he made this film in between the Dr. Who series, and that makes it even more of an achievement for me. I just love Dr. Who and yet I saw absolutely nothing of him in Mr. Tennants portrayal of this man who knows that he has changed and struggles to create some sort of new identity and life.
great little intense drama!
I'm guessing that he made this film in between the Dr. Who series, and that makes it even more of an achievement for me. I just love Dr. Who and yet I saw absolutely nothing of him in Mr. Tennants portrayal of this man who knows that he has changed and struggles to create some sort of new identity and life.
great little intense drama!
Moving and convincing portrayal of a family tragedy
davidlmartin16 March 2007
Recovery is a well-judged and balanced drama of a sensitive subject that doesn't sentimentalise the main characters. David Tennant and Sarah Parish bring to the fore the complex and conflicting emotions of a couple deeply in love struggling to come to terms with the personality changes they both endure and also must make to survive a tragic accident.
Tennant, as Alan, brings humour as well as a dangerous lecherousness, as an engineer recovering from a memory loss brought on by a road accident. Alan is not portrayed simply as a victim but as human being with feelings doing the best he can to make sense of his new life. Sarah Parish's Tricia is not a clichéd stand-by-her-man housewife who will do anything to support her husband. She struggles with falling out of love with Alan, as the man she once new and loved is now a completely different person - a stranger to her.
Contrary to some opinion, this - in my view - makes perfect Sunday night viewing. Too often, we are shown soft family dramas or detective series, like Heartbeat, which rot and putrefy the brain. Programme commissioners seem to think that the traditional day of rest is also a day when our minds go to sleep. More challenging and thought-provoking drama like Recovery would seriously change the situation.
Tennant, as Alan, brings humour as well as a dangerous lecherousness, as an engineer recovering from a memory loss brought on by a road accident. Alan is not portrayed simply as a victim but as human being with feelings doing the best he can to make sense of his new life. Sarah Parish's Tricia is not a clichéd stand-by-her-man housewife who will do anything to support her husband. She struggles with falling out of love with Alan, as the man she once new and loved is now a completely different person - a stranger to her.
Contrary to some opinion, this - in my view - makes perfect Sunday night viewing. Too often, we are shown soft family dramas or detective series, like Heartbeat, which rot and putrefy the brain. Programme commissioners seem to think that the traditional day of rest is also a day when our minds go to sleep. More challenging and thought-provoking drama like Recovery would seriously change the situation.
accurate
nuttyneoparis26 February 2007
When I saw this on TV I was nervous...whats if they messed it up? Millions of families like mine that live with a brain damaged man, in my case my Dad, would be let down. I watched it with my Mum and we both ended up crying, it was so accurate and captured how the family feels as well as the person having suffered the brain injury. The actors were all wonderful and I had no complaints, my Mums told me she hasn't been able to stop thinking about it. I hope this program made many people aware of what it's like living with brain damage and what it's like for the families. More programs like this should be made, I was surprised at how good it was and it's really shook me up emotionally.
Uncomfortable to watch - but that's a good thing
measi28 February 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Recovery is an incredibly moving piece of work, handling the devastating effects of brain injury on not only the individual, but the entire family. Without resorting to preaching or Hollywood sappy endings, Tony Marchant's drama presents a family in crisis in a realistic way.
Highest praise goes David Tennant and Sarah Parish for their incredible performances. I had presumed before watching the drama that I would see some of their previous on screen relationship in Blackpool bleed through-- but it never does. Neither actor is recognizable from any previous work, and I didn't see either of them as an actor playing a part during the entire 90 minutes. In addition, Harry Treadaway's performance as the son just on the cusp of starting his own life in university was fantastic - throughout the piece, he shows the torn nature of a teenage boy thrown into the unwilling role as man of the house,
At times, nearly every character in the drama is unsympathetic. As the viewer, I wanted to give each of them a good smack to wake up to reality, stop moping, and start adjusting to the rotten but very present change in their lives. But under the same circumstances, I see myself acting like any of them - switching between trying to show the stiff upper lip to desperation to escape to anything, including behavior that is completely unlike myself. It's the show's greatest strength - truth, without sugar coating, to force us all to think what we'd be able to do under the same circumstances.
This is a difficult, but must-watch show. I hope that it somehow manages to be shown in the U.S.
Highest praise goes David Tennant and Sarah Parish for their incredible performances. I had presumed before watching the drama that I would see some of their previous on screen relationship in Blackpool bleed through-- but it never does. Neither actor is recognizable from any previous work, and I didn't see either of them as an actor playing a part during the entire 90 minutes. In addition, Harry Treadaway's performance as the son just on the cusp of starting his own life in university was fantastic - throughout the piece, he shows the torn nature of a teenage boy thrown into the unwilling role as man of the house,
At times, nearly every character in the drama is unsympathetic. As the viewer, I wanted to give each of them a good smack to wake up to reality, stop moping, and start adjusting to the rotten but very present change in their lives. But under the same circumstances, I see myself acting like any of them - switching between trying to show the stiff upper lip to desperation to escape to anything, including behavior that is completely unlike myself. It's the show's greatest strength - truth, without sugar coating, to force us all to think what we'd be able to do under the same circumstances.
This is a difficult, but must-watch show. I hope that it somehow manages to be shown in the U.S.
*Excellent* drama!
spbpeterman3 September 2013
Warning: Spoilers
David Tennant (and Sarah Parish) did an amazing job in this two-part miniseries. I admit that I may be biased, since I am a head injury survivor, myself (I suffered two subdural hematomas in the frontal/temporal areas of my brain), but I really don't think so. I *do* admit that I had to stop the film and cry a few times (like when David/'Alan' got hit by the truck, or when he found himself flummoxed by what he needed to use in the shower, or when he ...). And David Tennant will *always* be my hero, both for taking on this role, and for taking on the 'real' role of the patron of Headway Essex (a recovery center for the head-injured)!
Drama - Recovery
doug-77818 March 2007
David Tennant and Sarah Parish's brilliant acting had me in tears as many of the scenes were so familiar to me. My husband suffered a sub-arachnoid haemorrhage in 1977 and required a major operation which involved lifting his brain and plugging the leak. Like Tricia I was naive enough to expect that he would return to being his former self. After over 25 years of loving and caring for him he abandoned me without warning to go and live with a woman he hardly knew. He then petitioned for and I am now going through a divorce. I do hope the programme helped people to understand what it is like to cope with brain injury.
Haunting, painful, and beautiful
elainapapaya21 May 2020
This is one of those films that you can't stop thinking about days after watching. It doesn't seem like much right after you've finished it, but it keeps nagging at you. The subject matter is handled extremely well- it's blunt, but not degrading, sympathetic, but not unrealistic. It's a shame that this was a tv movie; I think it would have gained some attention if it had been released in theaters. All of the actors were brilliant. Recovery feels very, very real, and I highly recommend checking it out.
Incredibly accurate movie about brain damage!!
srantanen-5478619 September 2023
This movie made me cry like a infant! I've had brain injury myself and all the complications in day to day life shown in movie was so accurate!! I was blown away, I watched this just because of David Tennant. And he did deliver unbelievable character, with all the confusion. And when you have brain damage, you don't understand it yourself, you think you are totally alright! But you aren't.. Wifes difficulties I recognized very well, my spouse from that time had same questions, when this is over.. Well it never is..
To sum up: This is incredible movie about brain damage and life after the damage!! This should be shown in hospitals to all familys of brain damege patients!! Definately!!
lacks drama
SnoopyStyle30 September 2015
Alan (David Tennant) and Tricia Hamilton (Sarah Parish) are married with two sons. He's a manager of a property company. He gets hit by a truck and suffers brain damage. He wakes up from a coma with memory loss and unstable behaviors. The family struggles to cope and Tricia has little help. He can't keep his job and they are broke.
David Tennant does a good performance of a brain-damaged man. Sarah Parish has a nice turn when she breaks down. The story doesn't really have much drama. It's one incident after another. It doesn't build as much as it's a drip, drip, drip of Alan's outbursts. It doesn't make for a great dramatic movie but it's compelling for people dealing with similar situations.
David Tennant does a good performance of a brain-damaged man. Sarah Parish has a nice turn when she breaks down. The story doesn't really have much drama. It's one incident after another. It doesn't build as much as it's a drip, drip, drip of Alan's outbursts. It doesn't make for a great dramatic movie but it's compelling for people dealing with similar situations.
Came for David Tennant, stayed for the movie
shangeetharajoo9 September 2023
This movie had a fantastic message and cast, they didn't make it sappy or had 2 dimensional characters. They were real people, feeling real things. Coping with a life changing accident or illness doesn't make them only a victim, they are still people.
Just because the family expresses discomfort and refuse to be saintly doesn't mean they are not loving or trying.
Not easy watch but what a watch.
I absolutely loved David Tennant, Sarah Parish & Harry Treadway
I absolutely loved that Sarah's character, didn't want to be carer or mother and stubbornly wanted her partner back.
Because most of the time that's what we slip too don't we.
But seriously absolutely fantastic movie.
Just because the family expresses discomfort and refuse to be saintly doesn't mean they are not loving or trying.
Not easy watch but what a watch.
I absolutely loved David Tennant, Sarah Parish & Harry Treadway
I absolutely loved that Sarah's character, didn't want to be carer or mother and stubbornly wanted her partner back.
Because most of the time that's what we slip too don't we.
But seriously absolutely fantastic movie.
David Tennant is the most emotive man on the planet, and brain damage is NOT the end.
browniesnack5730 July 2019
This movie is the most powerful, emotional, and inspiring movie I have ever seen. The description of brain damage like a road network is brilliant. This is a heartfelt, and definitely heartBREAKING, tale of the struggle of man who no longer understands his own brain. Everything is difficult, people are mad at him for something he doesn't remember doing, even though it just happened yesterday. Themes are: confusion, frustration, anger, fear, hopelessness and love. David Tennant expresses the stress and rejection Alan experiences, beautifully. He is angry, sobbing, sullen to the point of laying in bed wishing to turn off his whole brain. The ending is complex, and designed to be judged differently, depending on your viewpoint. Personally, I find it sweet.
A painful trip towards recovery
kalyanisays6 April 2021
Warning: Spoilers
I just feel sometimes that I wish I had not watched this film, but I am so happy I did. I say so, because- what they show is painfully correct. From not knowing what is happening to yourself to trying to run away from it, giving up but not entirely because it feels there might still be hope of everything returning to its normal is what the entire movie is about.
In this movie, you will see a man/husband/father/friend/son clueless and confused about why things are the way they have become. You will see an equally clueless and angry wife because she is unable to control how the things are. The children have their own paths to understand the circumstances and that they might never get their father back. It is beautiful and it all feels very true- like they weren't acting.
The movie moves towards the end like it would just go bad and bad(for the family- not movie), you see the catharsis and the ending you want to see. It is not actually a happy ending, but it is an ending which is most realistic like a slower path- just trying to get back the life together.
My favourite scenes are definitely at the end, where Alan(played amazingly by David Tennant- man I keep falling in love with his acting again and again) tells his son about a long term memory and now how his future depends on what he does. That he will be the one in the big orange car now and his son has to be his father half the time. And he even says the most dad thing he could say in front of the entire dorm-"Don't get chlamydia!" And, of course the penultimate scene with an amazing song in the background, how Alan breaks down in front of his wife and how he wants to conquer the monsters.
It is definitely a must watch because it is so rare these days for such movies to even exist.
In this movie, you will see a man/husband/father/friend/son clueless and confused about why things are the way they have become. You will see an equally clueless and angry wife because she is unable to control how the things are. The children have their own paths to understand the circumstances and that they might never get their father back. It is beautiful and it all feels very true- like they weren't acting.
The movie moves towards the end like it would just go bad and bad(for the family- not movie), you see the catharsis and the ending you want to see. It is not actually a happy ending, but it is an ending which is most realistic like a slower path- just trying to get back the life together.
My favourite scenes are definitely at the end, where Alan(played amazingly by David Tennant- man I keep falling in love with his acting again and again) tells his son about a long term memory and now how his future depends on what he does. That he will be the one in the big orange car now and his son has to be his father half the time. And he even says the most dad thing he could say in front of the entire dorm-"Don't get chlamydia!" And, of course the penultimate scene with an amazing song in the background, how Alan breaks down in front of his wife and how he wants to conquer the monsters.
It is definitely a must watch because it is so rare these days for such movies to even exist.
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