Lorenzo's Oil is one of those films that I'd had sitting around on my shelf ready to watch for many months before I finally got around to sitting down and putting it on, and having now done so it's gone straight into my top-100 list. My pre-conceptions about this film were really quite wrong - I think influenced by the fact I thought it was longer than it actually is for some reason. And length-wise it is about right; keeping a good pace and a good level of intrigue throughout. Unfortunately the negative and pessimistic attitudes of the medical staff depicted in this film are tales that I have heard repeated in real life in other situations - if it's not in the text book, or if it doesn't conform to scientific norms, often they just don't want to hear about it. The film has been criticised by some for playing up the effectiveness of the oil in treating ALD; making it out to be a failure almost. However, as I understand it, if the condition is caught in time, the oil has a remarkably beneficial effect. And whatever its effectiveness the fact is that a five year boy who was diagnosed with ALD and given a couple of years to live, actually lived on to the age of 30; dying from pneumonia in May 2008. Much like the film 'Awakenings' Lorenzo's Oil shows that no matter what the outward appearance of a disabled person may be, there is always some kind of life going on inside, and that alone is worth fighting for.