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jillswift
Reviews
Doctor Who: Love & Monsters (2006)
Some serious bad spots. Might be a tad subtle without backing.
I watched the beginning, cringing. That Saturday-morning-cartoon hallway chase was a horror. However, I later worked out the purpose.
It's a bad writer's trick, but it was a diversion. Set us up thinking it was their bottom of the barrel story and then hit us with a careful study of human relationships and a most fascinating peek at asking "What would the results of meeting a disaster magnet like the Doctor be?" It was interesting to listen to the evolution of LNDA - from a group meeting based around one common interest, and then growing in strength though not numbers as the group found greater and wider interests. It was reminiscent of many of the fandom groups I've been a part of and so struck a chord with me.
Then watching as (deus ex machina, sadly) the monster destroyed the group one at a time and ... you know, as I analyze this episode more deeply it starts stinking. It fits together very loosely, and has gaping holes in the storyline. Worse, there's no reason for it. A little reason and motive to tack on to folk's actions and a shade more thought about reactions and direction would have made this as much a gem as most of this and last season were.
Still, even though this failed to really live up to its potential, never mind live up to its predecessors, it's still better TV watching than 90% of what else I've seen.
Mozart and the Whale (2005)
Unlike most films, this one seems to get it right.
It's unusual for a film to portray something like Asperger's with any accuracy, being so often more interested in spectacle over substance. This film manages to portray quite a range of Asperger's and other high-functioning autistics rather well. I think the proof of it's extraordinary portrayals lies not with me seeing so much of how my life as an Aspie (a person with Asperger's) but in sitting down with my husband to watch it and having him so often say "Oh, you do that!" and ask "Is that really how it is?" and get a yes from me.
Josh Hartnett's overall performance lacked a bit in some areas, but he had the eye-averting and not-sure-what-to-say looks down near perfectly. Radha Mitchell manages to nigh-flawlessly convey the sheer frustration I feel daily. Sheila Kelley's performance, though a small part of the picture, went far in making the support group scenes believable, and John Carroll Lynch's lost-but-denying-it performance made a fabulous foil for Hartnett.
As for plot: I'm a bit of a sucker for a romance anyway, so I can't help but have enjoyed this. Seeing these two characters try so hard to work around their autism to connect at some level was occasionally hard to watch. Every mistake they made set me at the edge of my seat, and when Isabelle's psychiatrist asks Donald to never contact her again, I shouted "No!" at the screen. And when they finally let the audience know that, after all that supreme effort, they do manage to make that connection, the relief and joy was undeniable.
Why this movie is having a hard time getting released, I do not know.