Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (2009)

........................................................from Pasto,Colombia...Via: L.A. CA., CALI, Colombia...and ORLANDO, FL

"The brain is a miracle!" Says Dr. Ben Carson upon being asked why he wanted to be a brain surgeon during his screening interview as an applicant for internship at prestigious John Hopkins Hospital. That Carson would become eventually, perhaps, the best and most renowned Pediatric Neurosurgeon in the world is even a bigger miracle! These words are easy to identify with because "What the human mind can conceive and believe, it can ACHIEVE!"-Dr. Napoleon Hill.

Every time I sit down to write a review, my goal is to find some aspect of the film that inspires me, and then manage to express that in a way that will, in turn, serve to inspire you! In the case of GIFTED HANDS, there is a lot of inspiration at its core! Dr. Carson's particular well-spring of inspiration is his faith in God.

Unfortunately, there are always a few people who seem to find this religious source anathema to their continued existence on this planet! Why is that? I consider myself a spiritual person, but not really religious, in the traditional sense. Yet, I find this attitude just as baffling as those who cannot countenance a story line where inspiration is NOT faith-based. Inspiration is inspiration, no matter who, where, how, when or why!

GIFTED HANDS deserves KUDOS for several things it doesn't do: Despite being about an African-American trailblazer starting out in the 60's and 70's, there is only one brief scene where Carson is dissed simply for being "different". Certainly, there must have been a number of times in his life where he encountered racism, but one scene was enough to underscore this. (One of the BEST scenes in the film, BTW)

Cuba Gooding, Jr. was excellent (but not great) in the title role. Two Constructive Critiques: Even with his wrinkles digitally air-brushed out, at 41, Gooding was too old to play a 19 year-old college Freshman. Also, as is usually the case with TV productions, some aspects were slightly below par, causing me to rate this 9* as opposed to 10*

.....ENJOY/DISFRUTELA!

Any comments, questions or observations, in English o en Español, are most welcome!