Movie Review: First, Do No Harm Starring Meryl Streep and Fred Ward

Lori (Meryl Streep) and Dave (Fred Ward) Reimuller have achieved the American dream – they have three beautiful children, a nice home on an acreage, good jobs, and even a good horse for the family to ride. Everything is perfect, and who could ask for more in life? That is, until Lori gets a call from her younger son’s teacher informing her that Robbie (Seth Adkins) fell and that she should come to the school right away. He’s unhurt, but there was something very strange about the way he fell.

A second “fall” makes it impossible to ignore the fact that something is wrong with Robbie, and a hospital visit confirms the worst – Robbie has epilepsy. The diagnosis sparks countless doctor’s visits, hospital stays, and changing and adding drugs constantly. Everything the doctors try to do only makes Robbie worse – add to that, they just discovered that they don’t even have medical insurance and face losing their house as a result. Lori stumbles across a mention of the Ketogenic diet in an old textbook on epilepsy and wants to try that for Robbie, even though the doctors are adamant that it does not work and are willing to go to any lengths to keep him in the traditional medical world.

The first question that might come to mind on first viewing is, why would they cast names like Meryl Streep, Fred Ward, and Allison Janney and then have no-names of mediocre acting skill in most of the rest of the cast? The answer is that while this made-for-TV film is meant to be a moving drama, it also serves the purpose of raising awareness about epilepsy and the part the Ketogenic diet has played in treating it; one of the ways that First, Do No Harm achieves this objective is by casting real epilepsy sufferers who have benefited from the diet in these smaller roles.

As for being a moving drama – this film certainly is that. From the start, this is a very difficult movie to watch as it chronicles the descent of a small child from a perfectly health, outgoing kid to someone barely recognizable who couldn’t even stray far from his hospital bed without risking serious injury. It is also a very real problem for a lot of people, though the efficacy of the Ketogenic diet is a bit more widely-accepted now than when the movie was made.

For acting, this is certainly nothing new for Meryl Streep – in fact, her prowess in the throes of emotional turmoil has been proven time and time again in a number of very emotionally raw movies. Here it is no different, she plays a middle-aged mother with the cares of the world on her shoulders marvelously. Unfortunately for Streep fans, though, there’s really nothing new from her in this role. In fact, the only role that really stood out was that played by Seth Adkins, who was eight years old at the time. Child actors who can actually play a convincing part in any role are few and far between, and Adkins played a child in widely varying stages of health to perfection.

The story line itself does drag a bit, considering most of the movie is simply focused on this little kid’s deterioration. Once something actually starts happening, it’s all over very quickly. That said, in order for the ending to have sufficient impact, it would be difficult to cut out much of the portrayal of Robbie’s disease progression.

Overall, this is one of those medical dramas that can either be a tear-jerker or have you bored to tears, depending on your particular leanings in film types. Those who love the films that make them cry, and love to see human triumphs in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles, will undoubtedly love this movie that is based on a true story.