Mozart and the Whale (2005)

They say that when you've met one person with autism, you've met just one person with autism.Most movies or television shows which contain a character with autism tend to overload that character with the combined traits that would be found in ten to twenty people with autism. Not so in Mozart and the Whale.The characters are very well written, developed and acted. As a teacher who works with individuals with Aspergers/Autsim I was pleasantly surprised by the realistic approach to the characters in the movie, including those in the support group.Additionally the attempts by the lead characters at socializing with neuro-typicals were also portrayed very accurately.The fact the movie is also very entertaining and a joy to watch is a bonus.

I warily waded into this one, skeptical that two young H'wood hotties would have the acting chops to make me believe they had Asperger's. The perky alt-pop song over the clichéd opening aerial "city" shots was a bad omen---"another film targeted for date-flickers who don't want real-life to intrude on a cute, predictable love story." Ten minutes later, I'm actually laughing at the lameness of the portrayals. Josh Hartnett seems like a nice-enough bloke, but he's in way over his head here; he seems more shy than afflicted. Radha Mitchell apparently has one note to play in all her roles---nervous, twitchy, disturbed, chain-smoking, about to blow a fuse. See Woody Allen's "Melinda and Melinda" and you'll see the same character, only now she supposedly has Asperger's. Although you wouldn't know that by watching her---she talks and acts pretty normal. Another young, attractive, red-haired actress in their "group" seems like a student in a high school drama/improv exercise who's been told that her character has autism and is given a few seconds to come up with something suitably "autistic" to say. When Radha Mitchell's character gleefully exclaimed, "We're autistic!" I'd had enough. I know people with autism, including my nephew. This woefully unrealistic film is to autism what the equally laughable "Away from Her" (2007) was to Alzheimer's...

As a mother of a child with Aspergers I was extremely interested the other night when I saw this was on one of my movie channels. I recorded it and watched it the following day. I love that they show having Aspergers doesn't mean that you still can't love and have strong feelings just like anyone else. Although my son struggles to understand others emotions he has ones of his own. I laughed and cried watching this film, feeling the surge of emotions from the characters just as I experience my sons. I would watch this again and will encourage my son to do the same as he gets older! If you know someone with Asperger's (or high functioning Autism) I recommend this film. Although every child with Autism, no matter where on the scale they fall, are different this movie lends some understanding to the struggles and joys that they experience. They often say that if you have met one child with Autism, you have only met one. I think that everyone in the support group in the movie were so different showed that extremely well.

i have aspergers syndrome, and i found mozart and the whale to be a touching and relatable film. i thought this movie did a really good job showing autism as a spectrum with the different characters. most other movies about autism show the syndrome as an extreme, where the characters possess every characteristic of the disorder, and in an exaggerated form. i also liked how the characters the two main characters had different characteristics for aspergers, showing that there isn't a typical aspie. i agree that with the review below that some aspects were exaggerated, though you should remember that the main characters also have savant syndrome, with not all aspies do. and i disagree with the statement that the movie didn't show aspies as higher functioning. it showed the characters in the movie as living on their own and having steady jobs, again showing the spectrum of autism. a big thing with aspergers is the inability to develop strong emotional connections with others. and i think that this movie conveyed that, and it makes the love story between the two main characters all the more relatable.