''Robin's Wish'' is a 2020 American

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

directed by Tylor Norwood. The film offers a look into the life and final days of

Robin Williams Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and comedie ...

, and how his struggles with diffuse Lewy body disease impacted his acting career and contributed to his death by suicide. The film was produced by Ben Sinclair, executive produced by physician and journalist, Shoshana R. Ungerleider and released digitally and on-demand on September 1, 2020.

Background

Robin Williams' widow, Susan Schneider Williams, chose the film's title, and approached director Tylor Norwood to make the film. Initially resistant, Norwood said he wanted to help people "understand the pain illiamsfelt as his talents and faculties rapidly slipped away" and he hopes the film "rights a wrong that was done to him, and takes away a cloud that has unjustly hung over his legacy for far too long." Interviews include Susan Williams and

Shawn Levy Shawn Adam Levy (; born July 23, 1968) is a Canadian and American filmmaker and actor. He is the founder of 21 Laps Entertainment. His work has spanned numerous genres, and his films as a director have grossed a collective $3.5 billion worldwid ...

(who directed Williams in the ''

Night at the Museum ''Night at the Museum'' is a 2006 fantasy comedy film directed by Shawn Levy and written by Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon. It is based on the 1993 children's book of the same name by Croatian illustrator Milan Trenc. The film had an en ...

'' series), as well as John R. Montgomery and David E. Kelley, who both worked with Williams on the TV series ''

The Crazy Ones ''The Crazy Ones'' is an American television sitcom created by David E. Kelley, and starring Robin Williams and Sarah Michelle Gellar. The single-camera series aired for one season on CBS, from September 26, 2013, to April 17, 2014. It was pa ...

''.

Reception

On the

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website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 90%, based on 58 reviews, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "''Robin's Wish'' offers an emotional look at the end of a life suddenly cut short—and pays warm tribute to the brilliant legacy that was left behind." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 73 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Frank Scheck Frank Scheck is an American film critic. He is best known for his reviews in the ''New York Post'' and ''The Hollywood Reporter''. He formerly edited ''STAGES Magazine'' and worked as a theater critic for the ''Christian Science Monitor ''Th ...

of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' called the film "a moving coda to a life ended much too soon" and wrote: "''Robin's Wish'' suffers at times from its lack of objectivity. Williams' widow is clearly the project's driving force, with much of the story told from her perspective (his children, on the other hand, are not heard from at all). Nonetheless, the film, which incorporates testimony from several medical experts, fully succeeds in its admirable goal of using Williams' story to shed light on a disease with which many people were previously unfamiliar."

References

External links

* 2020 documentary films 2020 films American documentary films American biographical films Films about mental states Lewy body dementia Robin Williams 2020s English-language films 2020s American films English-language documentary films {{bio-documentary-film-stub