Charly

Charly (1968) is Ralph Nelson's science-fiction drama, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Charly Gordon is a grown man with a child's mind — a lab mouse outscores him on every test — until two researchers offer him surgery that could make him a genius.

The operation works, and then some. Within weeks Charly outthinks the doctors who treated him, falls for his teacher Alice Kinnian, and grasps for the first time how the men he called friends had really been laughing at him. But the sharper he gets, the more he dreads what's coming: the same procedure was tried on the mouse first, and the mouse's brilliance didn't last. Cliff Robertson plays Charly, with Claire Bloom as Alice.

Adapted from Daniel Keyes' famous story "Flowers for Algernon," the film rests almost entirely on one performance — Robertson carrying a man from helplessness up to genius and back down. The role landed him the Best Actor Oscar. It's a quietly devastating piece about a gift that hurts more than the lack of one. Stream Charly (1968) online on iFILM.