Gwyllum Evans
Dr. Malcolm Sayer, a shy research physician, uses an experimental drug to "awaken" the catatonic victims of a rare disease. Leonard is the first patient to receive the controversial treatment. His awakening, filled with awe and enthusiasm, proves a rebirth for Sayer too, as the exuberant patient reveals life's simple but unutterably sweet pleasures to the introverted doctor.
Aging New York cabbie Flanagan still has hopes of making it as a stage actor. He can recite any Shakespeare sonnet and is facile with accents, but he can't land an agent or a job. During the course of one summing-it-all-up day, he drives his cab around the city dealing with fare evaders, an insolent stage manager determined to keep him from auditioning for his choice director, his estranged wife who has a new lover, his mistress who seems awfully close to her "drawing teacher", and two teenage sons whose bright visions of the future don't seem to include jobs. If he can only cope with all the annoyances of this day, maybe he can deal with the limitations in his abilities and his future.
A snobbish investor and a wily street con-artist find their positions reversed as part of a bet by two callous millionaires.
