The Cure is a 1995 American drama film directed by Peter Horton and written by Robert Kuhn. The film stars Brad Renfro and Joseph Mazzello and follows an unlikely friendship between two boys, one of whom is suffering from AIDS. When the boys hear of a possible cure for the disease, they set out on a quest to find it. The film was distributed by Universal Pictures and was released to theaters on April 21, 1995. It was not a box office success, earning only $2.57 million. Although The Cure received mixed reviews from critics, the performances of Mazzello and Renfro received acclaim and both actors earned Young Artist Awards nominations. Horton received the Audience Award at the Cinekid Festival and Renfro won an award for Best Performance in a Drama Film at the first annual YoungStar Awards. The film also received a Grammy Award nomination for its score by Dave Grusin. Plot Erik is an eleven-year-old loner who has just moved to a small town in Stillwater, Minnesota. Accompanying Erik is his newly divorced, emotionally abusive and neglectful workaholic mother, Gail. Erik and his neighbor Dexter, who contracted HIV through a blood transfusion, become good friends despite initial mutual dislike and their differences, as Erik seeks the familial relationships he grew up without in Dexter and his mother Linda. Erik hides the friendship from his mother, knowing that she won't approve due to her own prejudice regarding AIDS. Gail discovers the friendship one night after Linda comes over to ask Erik about something Dexter ate in the boys' quest to find a natural cure for his disease. She furiously warns Linda to keep Dexter away, but Linda encourages the friendship. When the boys read an article in a tabloid about a doctor in distant New Orleans who claims to have found a cure for AIDS, they set out on their own down the Mississippi River with the hope of finding a means of saving Dexter's life. The boys take a boat down the river with a bunch of degenerates who don't treat the pair very well. Eventually the boys steal their money and try to hitchhike the rest of the way. When the boatmen find out their money has been stolen, they locate the kids at a bus station and proceed to chase them until they reach a dead end of a dilapidated building. Erik draws a switchblade and