Re: Mozart & The Whale Movie

[Guest guest]

Yes, I did. I identify my son as the main character since he is very high functioning but clueless about social interactions. I cried from the beginning to the end.

I am waiting to see Adam.

Ide

From: Bill Bilkey <billbilkey@...> Sent: Friday, July 17, 2009 7:50:30 AMSubject: ( ) Mozart & The Whale Movie

We rented Mozart and The Whale this weekend. It's about a couple with Aspergers that met in a group with others on the Autism Spectrum. Obviously, it's a spectrum so people have varied degrees of various symptoms. While thinking about my 8 year old Son's future, I'm thinking these people were on the lower functioning end of the scale and Aspergers/Autism is becoming more common and better understood. Josh Hartnet said he always felt like he was on the sideline watching life, but wasn't a part of it.Has anyone else seen this movie? Are there any others on the subject?

[Guest guest]

I just wanted to say thank you for listing this movie.. I want to get it and watch it. I didn't know this movie was about Aspergers. Thanks!From: Idelice A. Haack <haackia@...>Subject: Re: ( ) Mozart & The Whale Movie Date: Friday, July 17, 2009, 2:43 PM

Yes, I did. I identify my son as the main character since he is very high functioning but clueless about social interactions. I cried from the beginning to the end..

I am waiting to see Adam.

Ide

From: Bill Bilkey <billbilkey (DOT) com> Sent: Friday, July 17, 2009 7:50:30 AMSubject: ( ) Mozart & The Whale Movie

We rented Mozart and The Whale this weekend. It's about a couple with Aspergers that met in a group with others on the Autism Spectrum. Obviously, it's a spectrum so people have varied degrees of various symptoms. While thinking about my 8 year old Son's future, I'm thinking these people were on the lower functioning end of the scale and Aspergers/Autism is becoming more common and better understood. Josh Hartnet said he always felt like he was on the sideline watching life, but wasn't a part of it.Has anyone else seen this movie? Are there any others on the subject?

[Guest guest]

I love this movie it us me hope for my son.

From: Idelice A. Haack <haackia (DOT) com>Subject: Re: ( ) Mozart & The Whale Movie Date: Friday, July 17, 2009, 2:43 PM

Yes, I did. I identify my son as the main character since he is very high functioning but clueless about social interactions. I cried from the beginning to the end..

I am waiting to see Adam.

Ide

From: Bill Bilkey <billbilkey (DOT) com> Sent: Friday, July 17, 2009 7:50:30 AMSubject: ( ) Mozart & The Whale Movie

We rented Mozart and The Whale this weekend. It's about a couple with Aspergers that met in a group with others on the Autism Spectrum. Obviously, it's a spectrum so people have varied degrees of various symptoms. While thinking about my 8 year old Son's future, I'm thinking these people were on the lower functioning end of the scale and Aspergers/Autism is becoming more common and better understood. Josh Hartnet said he always felt like he was on the sideline watching life, but wasn't a part of it.Has anyone else seen this movie? Are there any others on the subject?

[Guest guest]

I loved Mozart and the Whale. It made me laugh and cry. There are a few movies

with characters on the spectrum but the movie isn't about people on the

spectrum, they just happen to be part of the story. One is American Splendor

which is about this comic book artist/writer named Harvey Pekar. Harvey is a

real person and in real life has a friend named Toby who is on the spectrum

either HFA or aspergers. It's a strange movie but funny. I really liked it. I

think Harvey and his wife are fairly spectrumy too. Giammati plays Harvey

but then there are also clips of the real life Harvey and his wife. Harvey used

to appear on Letterman and Toby did some ads for MTV for a while. I think there

was some controversy about Toby's stuff because people felt he was being

exploited. Harvey always got angry with Dave. Interesting characters.

Snow Cake is a fictional story which is mostly about a guy who becomes friends

with a woman who has high functioning autism. Alan Rickman is the guy.

Sigourney Weaver is the woman. I'm not explaining it well here. I love it but

then I LOVE Alan Rickman. Still the scenes that affect me the most are not

really about his character. It's a very good story.

The above stories are definitely not in any way for kids. Snow Cake might be

okay for a kid to watch but there are a few scenes with adult themes. My

daughter has seen most of it and she's 9. American Splendor is probably not

something I would watch with my daughter.

A Beautiful Mind isn't about asperger syndrome. It's the biography about a guy

named Nash. He has schizophrenia but before those issues arose he had some

strong asperger tendencies IMHO. So it's interesting for that.

There is a comic book artist named Rob Crumb, remember that little weird guy

with the long beard who says, " Keep on Truckin " ? That's one of Crumb's things.

There is a documentary about him. This one, well, I really like it but I would

suggest approaching with caution. He's a fascinating guy with definite asperger

traits. His brother was almost certainly hfa. He's in the movie too. Anyway,

a lot of his comic book stuff is extremely offensive. I like the film. I like

his work though. Maybe you won't want to be my friends if you watch this one.

LOL. The thing is, I'm pretty sure the intensity of these strips have something

to do with his autistic tendencies. He writes about stuff that goes on in his

head without any inhibitions at all and some of what goes on in his head is

pretty shocking though I suspect some of it goes on in other people's heads they

just would never tell anyone and certainly would never draw a comic book about

such things.

Snow Cake is my favorite of all of these. It makes me laugh and cry and there

are a few moments involving the parents of the autistic character and responses

of people who don't GET it that just kill me. They are so true for me. The

woman who has autism in this film, , does a few things that are very much

like my son and that makes me laugh and smile.

>

> We rented Mozart and The Whale this weekend. It's about a couple with

Aspergers that met in a group with others on the Autism Spectrum. Obviously,

it's a spectrum so people have varied degrees of various symptoms. While

thinking about my 8 year old Son's future, I'm thinking these people were on the

lower functioning end of the scale and Aspergers/Autism is becoming more common

and better understood. Josh Hartnet said he always felt like he was on the

sideline watching life, but wasn't a part of it.

>

> Has anyone else seen this movie? Are there any others on the subject?

>