Temple Grandin (2010)

I enjoyed this biopic because of the animals, not the heroine. After a while I got very irritated by her bulging eyes, tantrums, and hysterical behaviour, relentless and in the end boring and annoying. I doubt if anyone could live with that constant emotional melodrama. The saintly sister was sickeningly nice and good. This SO unrealistic. Most people would be nice and long-suffering but swear when out of her presence or with empathetic others. The film makers didn't introduce humour to lighten up the movie. This film didn't improve for me so I stopped watching it after an hour.

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.

When I heard that Claire Danes was going to play Temple Grandin I thought, "No, how can this long haired blonde (from Romeo and Juliet) play this gray headed tomboy with a thick accent?" At that time I had no idea who Temple Grandin was, except that she had Autism - like me. I didn't think she'd be that interesting, especially since she was involved with the cattle industry and it seemed boring (or at least it was boring to read on the internet). However, like Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, Claire Danes knocked my socks off at how well she played Temple Grandin. Not only could I not see Danes under the wig or accent, but the story was just as amazing!The film's basically about Temple's life after high school, and how she gets past being picked on, how she views the world, how she gets to understand cattle, and eventually learns to get along in life. I love the film! If this movie came out before Rain Man, then my parents would probably have understood better what Autism was. I have nothing against Rain Man, but what this movie did differently from Rain Man was that the audience gets to experience what Temple's experiencing and see what she sees. For example, you'll hear the intenseness of sounds that most people don't seem to mind, and you'll see what she's thinking. For example when someone says "It's a miracle" she'll have a flash of Christ walking on the water, and when she puts out two similar looking spoons we are shown the difference. I guess in a way you could say that we become Temple Grandin while watching her. The only two nitpicks I have with this movie is that there is a Rain Man moment in the movie where she just looks at a book and instantly reads the page from her mind. That never happened, nor did her brain work like that. The only other thing that bothered me a bit was that we never see whether or not she gets her cattle dip fixed or not, she just walks off in a huff and complains to the owner, then two scenes later she wants to tour the slaughter house. That felt a bit rushed and made me feel empty, but the ending made up for it. From a personal viewpoint I found this movie very relatable, because the visuals we see of how she thinks is exactly how I think, and some of our behaviors are similar, but not really. This movie captured what it was like to be diagnosed with Autism, and it also showed how much pain the mother had to go through in order to help Temple function in the world and not be locked in an institution. So not only do we end up feeling Temple's pain, but the mother's as well. That is a tough challenge, but the writers did it well. This film not only inspired me to speak at my high school graduation and shamelessly share my struggles with Autism, but also encouraged me to keep strong, because someday I may change the course of history as she did.

This movie is about the struggles, determination, and success of a woman who has autism. Temple is played by Claire Danes. Supporting actors/ actresses include: Julia Ormond plays Temple's mother Eustacia; David Strathairn plays Dr. Carlock, a teacher at a school; and Catherine O'Hara plays Temple's Aunt Ann. Temple struggled with her autism quite a bit as a child. As she became a young adult she learns how to cope with it and use it to improve her life as well as making major contributions to the cattle industry. Temple's autism makes relating to people difficult, which is where the movie begins. Eustacia wants only the best for Temple, but she can no longer deal with Temple's issues. Dr. Carlock enables Temple to uncover her extraordinary talents and provides her with the ability to recognize opportunities and how to take advantage of them. This movie exhibits more of the abilities of people with autism, much like The Other Sister and I am Sam. The movie also demonstrates the power of close-up shots to show the emotion in Temple's face when dealing with difficult situations. Watching her contort her face made me, unconsciously, do the same, as if I were experiencing her stress level. I found the transitions a little disturbing only because they do not fit the story. It does not follow a natural time line, going from present to past and then back to the present. It may have been better done in documentary style, from beginning to end. The use of special effects seems to be an effort to try to give the viewer the feeling of what an autistic person may experience. But, trying to combine special effects with a natural process to tell a real story just didn't work well. Overall, this is a great movie. The topic is fascinating and having it based on a true story makes it all the better. I am not a movie fan but this definitely makes my favorite list; I was completely absorbed by it. The acting was so good that, oddly, I found myself identifying with Temple and almost had me thinking I might be autistic! After seeing this movie, I would love to meet Temple Grandin.