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Sometimes a person must know real setbacks and loss to realize what is important in life.

This is the story of a seventeenth century physician, Robert Merivel, who has a special talent for healing which he neglects as he indulges in his weakness for vice and luxury. In some ways he appears to be a shallow man but is actually consumed by self doubts and a humbling awareness, unshared by his peers, of how little is known about disease and its cure and how powerless he is to treat someone who is seriously ill.

Robert Merivel lived at a time in which there was outrageous ignorance, superstition and incredible disasters that caused great loss of life and property. It was also the time when rational scientific thinking began.

Merivel abandons his profession to follow a life of pleasure and status. He does this despite the appeal of his colleague and friend John Pearce that he not give up his profession. In his new position Merivel is granted many favors by the king who rewards him for his amusing distractions. Through self-indulgence and a pursuit of a, literally, forbidden love, Merivel eventually loses his wealth, possessions, and the king’s favor. A humiliated man Merivel visits his friend John, who has moved from the city to work in a country hospice, and once again he begins treating the sick. As before, his efforts are frustrated by ignorance and he loses two people he loves to medical complications that are beyond his knowledge to treat. In sorrow he commits himself to learning more and to doing what he can to help the sick. In the end he finds peace and awareness of what really matters.

In many ways seventeenth century England was very different from our own times but in other ways very much the same. There was and is a conflict between material wants and spiritual needs. Then and now many talented people abandon the things that are important in life for selfish gain and illusions of happiness. There are challenging realities which, while not the same, are not that much different in their impact on peoples’ lives and society.

Robert Merivel is a man whose life and choices are not strange to us either. He is a man who is easily distracted by amusements, confuses desire for love, and material gain for achievement. He is a man who only gains after he has lost.

Restoration is a film for someone who feels they have been distracted and have been overwhelmed by the burdens of life.

Available from Buena Vista Home Video
Rated R by M.P.A.A. for sexuality.