The Cure (1995) on Netflix
Erik, thirteen, moves to Stillwater, Minnesota and becomes friends with Dexter, an eleven-year-old neighbor who has AIDS. The boys read of a cure in New Orleans and set out down the Mississippi.
- Netflix4.0/5
- IMDb7.7/1012,239 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes45%
Trailer
Plot summary
After a divorce, Gail brings her thirteen-year-old son Erik to Stillwater, Minnesota. Next door is Dexter, eleven, who was infected with HIV through a transfusion. The two boys dislike each other at first, then become close friends. Erik, a loner, finds in Dexter and in Dexter's mother Linda the family life he lacks, and he tries home remedies with Dexter while keeping the friendship hidden from Gail, who disapproves because of her prejudice about AIDS. When a tabloid article reports that a doctor far away in New Orleans has a cure, the boys decide to float down the Mississippi River to reach him.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Cure (1995)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Martin Brest declined to direct, unsure he could get the performances he needed from young actors, and Sydney Pollack, Rob Reiner and Paul Brickman turned it down too; with Universal worried that nobody had signed on, Eisner halved the $20 million budget and hired Peter Horton.
- The script became a hot property after Steven Spielberg's company Amblin Entertainment showed interest in buying it, and a resulting bidding war ended with a million-dollar sale to producer Eric Eisner of Island Pictures.
- Hoping that big stars would boost the box office, Horton asked his ex-wife Michelle Pfeiffer and Meg Ryan to take part in the film, and both of them declined.
- Some industry figures criticized the script before filming even began, arguing that scenes where neighborhood bullies call Dexter gay slurs, with no other character objecting, amounted to homophobia.
