Charly

This 1968 movie stars Cliff Robertson as Charlie Gordon, a mentally challenged man, who as the movie opens is attending night school to try to improve himself. Charly is quite challenged, he works in a bakery and is the constant butt of his co-workers jokes. His attempt at education are not as successful as he would like. His night school teacher Alice Kinian, played by Claire Bloom likes him and eventually takes him to a clinic that is working on a program to help people improve their mental acumen.

Charly takes tests and eventually is determined to be a good candidate for the treatment. The operation is a success and Charlie soon goes from having an Iq of 59 to becoming a genius.

A relationship with his teacher develops.

All of the above seems like an intereseting story. The first half hour of the movie is quite good. As Charlie develops intelligence though the story goes some places that seem far fetched, unlikely, and a bit offensive.

Robertson is strong as Charly, playing a mentally handicapped man in a good way though I wonder if playing a mentally challenged man is a good way to get an Oscar. One thinks of Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man and even Johnny Depp in Gilbert Grape.

Once blessed with intelligence Charly feels attracted to Alice. He attempts to kiss her, these fumbles lead to an actual physical assault which ends with her slapping him and calling him an idiot. We then see a trippy, it was 1968 after all, montage sequence where Charly becomes a motorcyle man, a hippy, smoking and drinking and apparently enjoying his new attractiveness to all sorts of young women. this sequence ends with Charlie returning home to his apartment and finding Alice there. They both agree they want to be together. Whether this is anyway realistic or not I do not know but then we are treated to another weird montage which shows them cavorting in love and with a voiceover of the two of them talking about marriage.

All in all it not a good movie. It is odd, trippy, and unrealistic. While improving thier mental acuity is a reasonable goal for all challenged individuals the idea of him becoming a genius seems more like science fiction than not. I have to wonder how can an actor in a movie this bad get the Oscar for Best Actor. Yes Robertson did well, yes he played a tough role but still in a movie as weak as this one wonders how he gained this Oscar.