HEALTH -- February 23, 2012 at 4:07 PM EDT

Are Oscars Nominees' Health Plots Accurate or Malpractice?

By: Jason Kane and Victoria Fleischer

Open wide, Oscar, it's time for a check-up. Posture and sheen look good, as usual. Sword appears sharp, base solid. But with the Academy Awards slated for Sunday, we decided to bring in a medical doctor to examine the accuracy of the health themes in all those films you've been praising, too.

Enter Dr. Howard Markel, a real-life pediatrician, substance abuse expert and medical historian. From his hometown theater in Ann Arbor, Mich., Markel's been traveling the world with you -- through this year's Oscar-nominated films -- to diagnose the portrayals of brain injury in Hawaii, autism in New York, dementia on Downing Street ... even post-traumatic stress in cartoon Paris.

Find his medical chart for this year's top films below. (Warning: Spoilers ahead.)


Beginning October 24, 2012, PBS NewsHour will allow open commenting for all registered users. We hope that the elimination of our moderation process will enable a more organic discussion amongst you, our audience. However, if a commenter violates our terms of use or abuses the commenting forum, their comment will be removed. We reserve the right to remove posts that do not follow these basic guidelines: comments must be relevant to the topic of the post; may not include profanity, personal attacks or hate speech; may not promote a business or raise money; may not be spam. Anything you post should be your own work. The PBS NewsHour reserves the right to read on the air and/or publish on its website or in any medium now known or unknown the comments or emails that we receive. By submitting comments, you agree to the PBS Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, which include more details.

The Rundown offers the NewsHour’s unique perspective on the important events of the day with insights from the journalists you trust. » More

Watch Full Programs
PBS NewsHour Support From: