17th June 2018
Warning may contain spoilers
I always enjoy watching, reading or listening to any media that contains Autistic characters and was particularly looking forward to watching “Mozart and the Whale”. Why? Because it has not one main Autistic character but two, and one of these is female. It is well documented that there are few film and TV shows with a women or girl Autistic lead, so that alone peaked my interest in this movie.
The story is a basic boy meets girl love story where two people meet, get along fine, and although there are some problems, fall in love. The only difference here is that both boy and girl are on the Autistic Spectrum. The film is based upon Jerry Newport, an Autistic Savant and his relationship with Mary Meinel, who is also Autistic. Although if I am honest I know very little about the film’s real life characters. So overall what did I think? It was ok. Enjoyable, but just ok. I think it lacked a strong story, so the main focus for me was the actors and their portrayal of being Autistic.
Let’s start with the female character of Isabelle, played by Radha Mitchell. To be honest I found her a little frustrating. She displayed Autistic traits of sensory issues, being too literal, not being able to control her volume when speaking, reading situations wrongly and stimming when anxious. As an actress she played them well but the main part of her character that came across to me is her “in your face”, loud approach to communication. This could also be described as an Autistic characteristic but for me somehow did not feel quite right. Out of all the Autistic women I have had contact with, in both real life and online, I found it hard to see any similarities between them and Isabelle. Now I appreciate that everyone on the Autistic Spectrum is different and that personality also has a large part of every individual, but I just could not warm to her. Maybe it was just me though. I do appreciate that Autistic women and girls are all different so I hope my view of her doesn’t offend anyone.
The male character, Donald, has similar and different traits to her. He struggled more with communication in terms of eye contact, being able to vocalise what he wanted to say, had the male stereotype of being fascinated by numbers (remember though that this is based on a real life maths savant) and was very distressed when changes happened. I could particularly relate to his coping mechanism during times of anxiety of working out factorials and prime numbers of car license plates. I too like maths as it has fixed answers which can offer control to a person during a situation which is unpredictable. It gives you control when there is none. Again I thought the character was played well by the actor, Josh Hartnett. I related to him more than Isabelle. I wonder if that is because I am a male myself, or if it is because we had some similarities? I really don’t know.
The film really excels though when the two characters come together. This is when you see the differences and similarities of people on the Autistic Spectrum. For example when Isabelle has a sensory induced meltdown, although caused by Donald, he instantly seems to know what is happening to her and what to do. This same thing happens later on in the film but with the roles reversed, when Isabelle causes Donald to have a meltdown and again understands what is happening to him. The two scenes are different, but at the same time so similar, that they cement the idea that Donald and Isabelle share the same sort of existence. There are also lots of other common things they share, an interest in animals for example.
I think a crucial aspect of the story is that Donald is running an Autistic Support Group which is where he meets Isabelle. In the film he says he started the group because he was lonely and didn’t want to be alone, like many of the people who attend the meetings. Although not stated in the film why Isabelle joins, I assume it is the same reason, to be around other Autistics. I really like this as it reaffirms my own belief that Autistic people really do need each other and in a lot of cases seek out others to feel part of a “tribe” and that we belong. I attend an Autistic support group and although it is nothing like the one in the film, I saw the importance of Donald’s group to everyone who was part of it.
So overall, I liked “Mozart and the Whale” because it is a film which explores not one but two Autistic characters, and deals with the similarities and commonality of people on the spectrum. There are so many films involving two people, one Autistic and one Neurotypical and they always seem to show the differences and the problems these differences create (a good example is the film “Adam”). This movie shows the similarities. How Autistic people relate to each other in both positive and negative ways.
That is the real strength of the film. It just lacks a little bit of story for me, but I would recommend you watch it and judge it for yourself. I would rate it a good seven out of ten. I also hope that in the future there are more films with several Autistic characters and not just one. Should any film makers are reading this – use Autistic actors and include a mix of both men and women. With a great story that would be a film I would love to watch.