On the Tube
Cuba Gooding Jr. shines in ‘ Ben Carson Story’
Cuba Gooding Jr. isn’t usually thought of as the most low-key actor in the world. He still may be best known for winning an Oscar after shouting “show me the money, show me the money” to the sports agent played by Tom Cruise in the movie “Jerry Maguire.”
GIFTED HANDS: THE BEN CARSON STORY
Two and a half stars (Out of four)
8 p. m. Saturday, TNT
But Gooding shows a much softer side in the heartwarming TNT movie “Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story.” The film, about one of the country’s most prominent neurosurgeons, airs at 8 p. m. Saturday. A Johnson & Johnson Spotlight Presentation, “Gifted Hands” has the sensibility of a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie.
Gooding arrives midway through the film as the adult African-American doctor after young actors Gus Hoffman and Jaishon Fisher play him as a teenager and child, respectively. The younger actors actually have a tougher job and handle it well. They portray Ben as he overcame prejudice, bullying, mockery, sight issues and his own temper to become one of the most gifted doctors in the world.
Kimberly Elise (“Beloved,” “Diary of a Mad Black Woman”) co-stars as his mother, Sonya, a single mother who hid her depression and inability to read from her two sons and sacrificed to enable them to succeed. She made her sons turn off “The Donna Reed Show,” “Father Knows Best,” “Rin Tin Tin” and other fantasy family shows, sent them off to the library and instilled them with discipline and pride.
“You can do anything you want as long as you work at it,” Sonya tells her sons.
Aunjanue Ellis (HBO’s “True Blood”) arrives late as Ben’s supportive girlfriend and wife, Candy.
The understated film doesn’t dwell on the negative. In fact, it jumps quickly from the few disturbing moments without fully explaining how Ben overcame his own violent temper. The suggestion is that he conquered his demons with the help of discipline, prayer and classical music.
Directed and produced by Thomas Carter, the script by John Pielmeier (“Agnes of God”) is told in flashback form. There isn’t much humor in it, except for a series of “your mother” jokes that show young Ben bond with some former bullies.
We meet Dr. Carson, a neurosurgeon at the prestigious John Hopkins School of Medicine, as he is asked to perform the seemingly impossible task of separating Siamese twins in 1987.
Then we flashback to 1961 and his childhood in Detroit, where teenage Ben was mistakenly believed to have lacked intelligence because he couldn’t see the school blackboard and needed glasses.
Once he was able to see, Ben became a scholar who almost ruined his chances at success after developing an uncontrollable temper.
Eventually, he found love and success, dealt with gut-wrenching personal heartache and succeeded at a time before many young African-American men believed they could become doctors, yet alone president or attorney general.
Dr. Carson obviously didn’t become president, but he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and was named one of the 20 foremost doctors and scientists by Time magazine in 2001.
There isn’t more than one moment in the script of “Gifted Hands” that is unexpected or overplayed and it only rarely achieves the emotional connection one expects. It’s an extraordinary story, but an ordinary movie. But it’s one inspiring TV show during Black History Month that parents like Sonya would want their children to watch.
Oscar warm-up
On Sunday, it will be two weeks to the Oscars on ABC. But viewers can get a preview of the voting and the glitter by catching the British Academy Film Awards from the Royal Opera House in London at 8 p. m. Sunday on BBCAmerica. The same five pictures are all up for best picture in both awards shows — “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Frost/Nixon,” “Milk,“ “The Reader” and “Slumdog Millionaire.” And the nominees in the acting categories are very similar, too.
‘Reaper’ returns
Inquiring minds want to know: When is “Reaper” coming back to the CW? The answer is 8 p. m. Tuesday, March 3, where it will serve as the lead-in for “90210.” “Privileged,” which has been airing at 9 p. m. Tuesday, has its season finale Feb. 24.
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