Temple Grandin (2010)

Purely Joyful Movie!

Powerful

Did you people see the same film I saw?

Best movie ever!

I'm writing this review as someone very familiar with autism.First of all, Temple Grandin is a remarkable lady and her story is an inspiring one. Clair Danes does a great job and the way the movie highlights the way sounds and other things jump out is cleverly done.I have one beef ⎯ excuse the pun ⎯ with this movie, but it's a biggie. The movie celebrates autism. Claire Danes as Temple Grandin calls it a gift. At one point in the movie she says she has autism and people applaud at the diagnosis.Frankly, this is a slap in the face of people who have suffered from autism and their families. Many people with autism cannot speak or communicate clearly at all; they are painfully sensitive to everyday experiences, which makes their lives a living nightmare; their parents may never get to cuddle them or hear them say they love them; parents often spend a fortune to go from specialist to specialist, without much improvement; they develop comorbid conditions that further lower quality of life, such as OCD; and so on.It's not, as the movie says, "different but not worse". For the vast majority, it is significantly worse ⎯ not just for them, but for their families, too. And this movie whitewashes autism and makes it look like some kind of super power. Tell that to the parents who still wipe the butts of their adult sons and daughters with autism.

It's summer 1966 Arizona. Temple Grandin (Claire Danes) is an autistic woman staying at her aunt Ann (Catherine O'Hara)'s ranch getting ready to go to college. She can't understand people but finds it easy to understand horses and cattle. She comes up with a squeeze box to calm herself. With the help of her loving but overwhelmed mother (Julia Ormond), mentor Dr. Carlock (David Strathairn), and others, she is able to study, publish, and work on animal handling despite facing a disbelieving and alien world.This is a surprisingly powerful movie. Claire Danes delivers a great performance. I have never cared for animal handling more. This is more than a TV movie and this could have turned into a movie of the week. Instead, it's cinematic and emotional. The story is so compelling and she is such a great underdog story. It builds to heart-warming final scenes at the autistic convention.

I saw this several years ago and having heard of Ms Grandin in the past, I thought this would be a good film to watch. I encouraged my family to watch it with me and they enjoyed it as much as I did. Had I not checked the credits afterwards, I would never have guessed Claire Danes as Ms Grandin. I can sympathize with the difficulties of the autism spectrum, as I myself am on the Spectrum with a mild form of Aspergers.This was a really good movie and I would encourage anyone who is or knows someone on the Spectrum to see this, it was really well done and should not have been a TV movie.

From the director of The Bodyguard comes an HBO biopic about the famous autist and meat industry pioneer of the same name. Born in a time where autism was grossly misunderstood and treatments shoddy, Grandin overcomes much adversity, both social and medical, to not only make it through the education system and graduate, but also help implement much more humane methods of slaughter for cattle in the US that draw on her means of comfort and self control.Simply put, 'Grandin' may be among the best biopics I have ever seen, and certainly one of HBO's finest in a long line of TV movies. Right off the bat, Danes give a career best performance, completely vanishing into the title role, not only through some subtle prosthetics but also carefully adopting the mannerisms of real people with the disorder. Speaking as someone who has a history tied to the disorder and its effects, she was absolutely spot on. Yet, in spite of the character's very matter of fact ways, she still imbues Temple with both a strong drive and passion for her work, as well as a strange optimism. Supporting her are the rock solid likes of Julia Ormond as her hard working though understandably stressed mother, Catherine O'Hara as her sweet, and ultimately influential, aunt, and David Straitham as her high school science teacher, who recognises and helps Temple develop her talents.Beyond them though, Mick Jackson imbues the film with plenty of stylish flourish, mainly in the surreal representation of Temple's super-literal thoughts, which lead to some of the film's biggest yet also sincerest laughs (like when someone talks to Temple about 'animal husbandry', and her mind pictures it literally). Plus, the mainly South Western setting also gives the film an often gold-ish, very warm hue, which plays off nicely against the sometimes sombre, even harsh, nature of the material, complimented by excellent sound work that greatly emphasise how Temple struggles to cope with even mundane everyday tasks like walking through automatic doors, which feel more like a guillotine to her.Honestly, there isn't really much negative that I think of, especially given how tight this script is and how it can balance drama and sometimes oddball humour. There maybe one or two points that kinda slowed, but that was never an issue for me really as the film would always pick right back immediately, and for some, the 'literal thoughts' may come off a little too silly, but again, it's actually fairly accurate to how such a mind works so you can't accuse it of being off base. Frankly, I can't recommend this one enough, especially if you've ever had any kind of history or know people who suffer from autism/mental impairments, you'll instantly click with this movie.