Director: Peter Horton

Writer: Robert Kuhn

Main cast: Joseph Mazzello, Brad Renfro, Bruce Davison

First release year & country: 1995, United States

Running time: 97 minutes

Introduction

The Cure is a 1995 comedy-drama film starring Brad Renfro and Joseph Mazzello about two boys searching for the cure of AIDS, from which one of them is suffering. It was produced by Eric Eisner and Mark Burg.

Plot

Erik is a 13-year-old boy whose single mother, as just moved to a new home in Minnesota. Erik has trouble making friends until he meets Dexter. Erik and Dexter get along fine, but Gail tells Erik not to go near Dexter when she learns that he contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion a few years ago. Erik ignores his mother’s instructions and stands up for the frail Dexter at school, while Dexter’s mom Linda gives Erik the warmth, affection, and home cooking that Gail is too busy to provide. However, both boys are painfully aware of Dexter’s illness, and when one of them spots a headline in a supermarket tabloid that a doctor in New Orleans has discovered a cure for AIDS, they run away together, determined to find the doctor and bring Dexter back as good as new.

Movie Reviews

This is a wonderful tale of true friendship. Erik and Dexter have a friendship more powerful than most people will ever experience in their lifetime. The Cure touches you deep inside and just makes you want to do something for the real children who are suffering like Dexter.

By Screendoor, Amazon.com

An 11-year-old boy contracts AIDS from a blood transfusion and his best friend concocts cures for his ailing buddy. The two have some adventures, and then the sick boy dies. Mazzello and Renfro make a moving couple. The film moves us to tears about the nature of friendship; yet, curiously, it makes us not care about the deadly illness that kills friends.

By Lisa Schwarzbaum