Susan Sarandon and Nick Nolte give brilliant performances as parents trying to save the life of their son in George Miller 's harrowing and heartbreaking Lorenzo's Oil . Based on a true story, the film begins as bright young Lorenzo ( Zack O'Malley Greenburg ) is leading a pleasant life on the Comoro Islands. But things start to go wrong with him — he collapses, he raves, and he loses his hearing — so his concerned parents, Augusto ( Nick Nolte ) and Michaela Odone ( Susan Sarandon ), take him to a doctor. The diagnosis is a death warrant; they are told that Lorenzo has been diagnosed with adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), an rare and incurable nerve disease that is always fatal. When Augusto and Michaela are told to be patient as they watch their son sink further into the debilitating illness, they take matters into their own hands and start their own investigation of the disease. Using rapeseed oil, they find their own treatment for ALD. — Paul Brenner