Like Awakenings, this medical melodrama is also drawn from the casebook of Dr Oliver Sacks, but it's not so dramatically satisfying and markedly less well acted. However, the tale of courage originally told in Sacks's essay To See or Not to See is so remarkable that any filming of it would seem trite and sentimental. Certainly, Val Kilmer's infuriatingly mannered performance as the blind small-town masseur who briefly has his sight restored doesn't help matters, but Kelly McGillis as his sister and Mira Sorvino as his lover give accomplished performances that prevent the material from entering disease-of-the-week TV-movie territory. It's no classic, but it is thoughtful and solidly crafted.

A blind man has an operation to regain his sight at the urging of his girlfriend and must deal with the changes to his life.