TEMPLE GRANDIN (HBO biopic) (1 Viewer)

[Phil Florian]

I wanted to drop by and wholeheartedly recommend people seek out and watch the HBO biopic TEMPLE GRANDIN which premiered last Saturday night on HBO. It is a two hour movie starring Claire Danes as the title character. The movie is based on two of Grandin's books, EMERGENCE and THINKING IN PICTURES and tells the true story of a woman diagnosed with autism at a time in our history where the symptoms were known but the origins were assumed to be uncaring mothers and the best treatment was institutionalization of the child. It is an amazing story as written but I was suprised to see how effective it was also when done as a movie.

I met the real Grandin 15 years ago after seeing her speak and I have to say Danes nailed the role (some reviews say it is her defining role and they may well be right). She doesn't get maudlin or melodramatic as some have in roles playing people with disabiltiies (Juliette Lewis in THE OTHER SISTER or Sean Penn in that other one...can't remember the name of it..comes to mind). Her performance isn't slavish impersonation, either. There is still enough the actress and interpretation going on to be engaging without being pure pantomime.

The supporting cast is wonderful, in particular Catherine O'Hara in a rare (for me, anyway) straight role as a supportive aunt and Julia Ormond is cast as Grandin's mother who struggles with always trying to do the right thing when caring for her daughter even though the world around her rails against her for doing it wrong. David Strathairn plays a teacher, a former NASA engineer, who is among the first to recognize Grandin's potential.

This isn't RAIN MAN. It isn't about magical abilities of autistic people. She is simply someone who sees the world in a way completely differently than any other person and because of this is both ridiculed for it while also blessed because of it.

I could go on and on. The movie is thrilling as an underdog-struggles-against-the-status-quo story, touching in misunderstood-mother-and-child story and inspirational as any biopic strives to do. I work in a field supporting and advocating for people with disabilities and am always saddened by the horrible movies that see "disability" as an easy heart-string-tug point in a movie but rarely invest the time in creating a real character overcoming realistic challenges. This movie finally shows the promise that a character as complicated and different as Temple Grandin can also be a compelling character worthy of an audience's attention, not pity.

Has anyone else seen the movie? I am curious what other people think, both those familiar with autism or Grandin in particular but also someone just as unfamiliar with the person or disability.


Thanks,


Phil

 

[Robert Crawford]

I watched it this weekend and thought it was great. If this was a theatrical release, Danes would get a AA nomination. She was fantastic and has been one of my favorite young actresses ever since My So-Called Life. I will definitely buy this on BRD as this movie has given me a certain amount of enlightenment in regard to autism.





Crawdaddy

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Yesterday I saw a trailer for a film called Adam that's also about an autistic character (Asperger's in this case). I don't think it was a true story, but it looked pretty good.

 

[Dave B Ferris]

Interestingly, the star of Adam is Claire Danes' husband.

 

[Garrett Adams]

Another enthusiastic thumbs up from me. Oft repeated in the movie that Temple is different, but not less. Yesterday I read her Wiki page and many of the papers on her web site: www.grandin.com/ Later in the story time frame she got her Ph.D in Animal Science from the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign in 1989.

 

[Phil Florian]

I work in social work and spent much of the 90's in group homes for adults with cognitive disabilities, many of them diagnosed with autism. I was lucky and got to meet Temple Grandin at a conference in the mid-90's after hearing her presentation. Claire Danes nailed her performance for sure. Grandin really changed how people should see people with autism. She isn't cold or distant or disconnected. She definitely has had to learn how to present herself as others do because it doesn't come naturally like it does to most people, though. She has a bone dry sense of humor and sometimes it gets missed. As a friend to a few NASA scientists, I really thought her take on NASA was hilarious. She said NASA is the most expensive sheltered workshop for people with autism/Aspergers! I think she is right, too. There are a lot of people there far closer to Temple Grandin in social skills and so on. But they are people who wouldn't necessarily be diagnosed because they are able to make do day to day without a lot of help.

If interesetd in her through interviews, Terri Gross from the radio show FRESH AIRE just aired a 'best of' episode a week or so ago collecting interviews with Grandin from the lat 15-20 years. She is neat to listen to.

 

[mattCR]

I just got around to watching this. Claire Danes is amazingly good in this. This may be one of the best biopics I think I've ever seen.. I read a review of this today, searching for other thought on it, and this one summed it up:

http://www.hatrack.com/osc/reviews/everything/2010-04-11.shtml

The best of these performers don't play the handicap, they play the character; and the best of the scripts aren't about the handicap, or even overcoming the handicap. They're about the character's achievements and contributions to society.
These can be whimsical, like Forrest Gump's invention of just about all of American culture, or they can be real, like Ray Charles's music and Christy Brown's writing (MY LEFT FOOT).
I want to tell you about one of the finest performances I've ever seen -- and certainly the finest performance in the role of a handicapped person. But it won't win an Oscar, because it was in a movie that first appeared on HBO.
I'm speaking of Claire Danes in the title role of TEMPLE GRANDIN.
This is also one of the two greatest biopics (biographical pictures) I've ever seen -- the other being GANDHI (with Ben Kingsley winning an Oscar for the title role).

He's right. I'm struggling to think of any performance in a biopic I thought came across nearly as "real".

This is an incredible effort, a great story, and really really amazing direction.