Disability and the Movies

Brandon Frasier and Harrison Ford appear in the release Extraodinary Measures this weekend, about a boy with Pompe disease and his parent's struggle to find a cure. The New York Times review hailed the emotional impact and the life lessons learned in this movie. http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/movies/22extraordinary.html Most agree that it accurately reflects the angst that parents of children with special needs experience. Recall Lorenzo's Oil for an older version of a similar plot line. Susan Sarandon and Nick Nolte played parnets who researched for a cure for their son's rare and deadly disorder. Do you feel that these movies are helpful to raise awareness of the plight of parents with disabled children?

Sherlock Holmes has mixed reviews from movie-goers. Most rave about Jude Law's performance as Watson, but many are put off by the characterization of Holmes by Robert Downey, Jr. as flat, non-engaging, austere, and detatched. These qualities are Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's trademark of Holmes, and have led some to believe that Holmes personifies an adult with Asperger's Syndrome. In a writer's coffee clatch recently, several gals had decried the character as lacking in qualities that garner audience sympathy. Is this how the general public views suffers of Asperger's? I found it interesting that once I shared that tidbit about the possibility of his behavior owing to disability, many exppressed more sympathy for Holmes.

Bruce Willis starred in one of my personal favorite movies depicting a child with autism, which came out in 2006. Mercury Rising centers around a boy who memorizes a series of sounds from a phone code and accidentally taps into a top-secret operation headed by Alec Baldwin, who ruthlessly seeks out this vulnerable child to stop the breech. I found the young actor's portrayal of an autistic savant one of the most interesting in film.

A title worth watching, Rain Man is another sympathetic and true-to-the-mark portrayal of autism by Dustin Hoffman. An adult savant, Raymond Babbitt has a gift with numbers, and his wheeling and dealing brother charlie, played by tom Cruise, takes him to Vegas to count cards. In a particularly poignant scene, Raymond learns to dance with his brother, and momentarily overcomes his aversion to touch.

What are your favorite or least favorite depictions of disability on the movies?