"Adam", and my problem with movies about A.S.D.s

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To start with: Adam. I've decided that while it attempts to be sympathetic to Aspergers, there is a condescension there - the girls dad says he's a perpetual child and will never be able to relate to her as an adult, and the movie reinforces this idea. Hugh Dancy does a pretty good job in portraying some of the mannerisms, but at times it felt like the director doesn't really "get" Aspergers - it ends up being a vast over-simplification.

I was really hoping for a movie that expressed real sympathy for a real three dimensional character. Instead, movies involving characters with Aspergers and Autism tend to string up a bunch of stereotypical traits as a bouncing off board for the other characters to explore themselves in contrast to the Autistic oddity.

I appreciate the fact that there are more movies about A.S. and Autism out there and I appreciate directors at least trying to understand Autistic people - even if they fall short almost every time. They just aren't really able to "get it", because they simply can't truly empathize.

But this needs to change. I am hoping that in the future more Autistic directors make movies and shows with Autistic characters with real depth.

Of course, there actually are quite a few Autistic characters out there who are complex, funny, interesting, instead of a walking billboard of symptoms - but these are the characters who are never labelled. Think Sheldon Cooper, for example. I'm not saying he should get a label on the show - that could kind of ruin it, since no one would feel free to laugh at his quirks if they are, ahem, "symptoms".

One of the best movies I've seen involving a three dimensional character with Aspergers/Autism is "Mary and Max". For one thing, it's not just about the guy being Autistic, it's about a whole bunch of stuff, and his struggles are a part of it - a huge part of it, but he's a complex character.

One movie whose popularity amongst the Autism community baffles me is "Mozart and the Whale". I've heard some others say they dislike it, but generally people seemed to like it. I tried to like it. I wanted to like it. It was the first movie about Aspergers I'd seen (I'd only seen Rainman before that). I watched it two or three times, and god there's so much I dislike about it - but I won't get into that in this post.

I hated MATW too! The girl was a terrible actress! A Manic Pixie Dream Girl Zooey Deschanel knock off if ever there was one.

I liked "Adam" a lot but I was curious about his diet. I was under the impression that Autistic people ate the same exact thing every day vs Asperger's folks who enjoyed a variety of foods.

I haven't seen any Asperger's movies yet (I'll get to it eventually). How you are right about Sheldon, he clearly has Asperger's but if they came out and said it then they couldn't make fun of him without upsetting/offending people.

I haven't seen any Asperger's movies yet (I'll get to it eventually). How you are right about Sheldon, he clearly has Asperger's but if they came out and said it then they couldn't make fun of him without upsetting/offending people.

I've watched these movies within the past six months. In fact, I think I found this place after looking for reviews, and I was baffled by some thinking they're accurate.

Mozart and the Whale was a movie I couldn't understand. It started with a guy driving a cab who couldn't shut up and crashed it. That's the stereotype of being socially awkward but not knowing when to keep your mouth shut. A few moments later, he was being obsessive about numbers on a microwave. Some of the supporting characters, additionally, are dangerously insane rather than just autistic. The rest of the plot seems to be some kind of romantic drama comedy, and I didn't pay a lot of attention to it as it had alienated me within the first ten minutes through the main character's obsessive behaviour.

Adam was a movie I watched paying full attention, and it appeared to use many of the same archetypes of autism-inspired behaviour. While it was good at setting a theme, it relied on those archetypes so much that I found the movie quite annoying. Adam is a character who has an unhealthy obsession with space and science, something I previously thought was considered a cliché even in those circles. As with the guy in Mozart and the Whale, he has no clue whatsoever about social interaction. He also has virtually no friends, and is awkward enough to stare at an elementary school.

I suppose, although neither of these movies paid off, they were afraid they'd alienate the movie-going public and make less money if they nuanced their way of portraying autism.

Movies about AS should foucus on a group of friends that have it and the movie should be about how they cope with their AS not about feeling sorry for them Adam was a good movie though I havent seen Mozart and the Whale yet.

Yeah, I read that too. I think it makes sense. I'd prefer it be kept an "open secret" so I can keep laughing while relating to him.



Yes. And the female character to me was not only unlikeable and annoying, she clearly had borderline personality disorder. She wasn't just kind of manipulative, she was blatantly manipulative and self-centered, and an utterly a horrid person, and then at the ending scene, it's revealed that they are now married, and I was like WTF?! They are trying to make me happy that "love" won out? My version of a happy ending would have been that she actually did die, and he realizes holy crap I dodged a bullet there. As depressing as the ending of Adam was, at least I was rooting for them.

Unless the real life woman the character was based on actually is that obnoxious and awful, if I were her, I'd be horrified that someone based a character like that on me. I've read a bit about her and seen an interview, and she seems to be a decent person.

That seems like the making of a good movie. or a least a movie which has a chance of being a good movie.

about Mozart and the Whale

Fair enough, but it was sweet how she loved her animals, particularly this big rabbit. And she called her then ex-boyfriend when this rabbit died because she didn't know who else to call.