Mike Nichols' "Regarding Henry" opens with a portrait of a Manhattan lawyer as a driven, ambitious man who lives in great wealth and little happiness. Then a catastrophe occurs. He steps out one night to buy some cigarettes, and is shot in a holdup. One of the bullets penetrates his brain, and for weeks he drifts in a coma, until finally he awakens and the long process of rehabilitation can begin.

The movie is essentially about how Henry becomes more lovable and human as a result of his injury - how his soul is healed and his family saved by the experience. The shock of the bullet to his brain is diminished for the audience because all of the advertising for this movie, including the trailers and the TV commercials, spoil the surprise. But the movie isn't really about the gunshot wound, anyway. It's about how a man becomes a child, and the change is for the better.

Memory loss is a tantalizing phenomenon, and amnesia is commonly portrayed in the movies and on television, but is only rarely portrayed accurately. Even specialists know little about how and why head trauma or stroke can lead to amnesia. Discussion topics will include the different types of amnesia, the possibilities for recovery, and what parts of the brain are affected.

About the speaker: Zoanne Clack, M.D., M.P.H., grew up in Missouri City, TX, a suburb of Houston. She entered Northwestern University with a major in Radio/TV/Film, but eventually changed her major to Communication Studies with a concentration in Neurobiology, in order fulfill the requirements necessary to become a doctor – a much “safer” profession. The next ten years of Zoanne’s life were devoted to the practice of medicine. From medical school at UT Southwestern in Dallas, TX, she went to Atlanta, GA to pursue a residency in Emergency Medicine at Emory University. This was followed by a fellowship in Injury Prevention that led her to obtain a Master’s of Public Health (MPH) in Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Clack went on to spend a year with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) doing International Emergency Medicine. Throughout that year, she helped develop an emergency medicine program in response to the bombing of the American Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, as well as playing a part in expanding emergency medicine to the pacific island paradise of Palau. Still not quite finding her niche, Zoanne decided to try “living on the edge” and delving into her creative interests. She moved to Los Angeles with her “good day job” and was able to quickly integrate into Hollywood life by landing a staff writer position on the show “Presidio Med” in 2001. Since then, Zoanne has been a medical advisor on the long-lasting series “ER” and is currently writing for one of ABC’s newest hit shows, “Grey’s Anatomy.”