A mind so different, by Dorothy Rabinowitz in the Wall Street Journal. An excerpt:

The story of Temple Grandin, diagnosed with autism at age 4 and in time a symbol of hope for the afflicted, has made its way to the screen with spellbinding results.

… there is Claire Danes in the title role, prime cause of the spell that binds all elements of this saga—everything that’s moving, daunting, heroic, and strange beyond comprehension. And she does this in a performance so remarkable that it seems, itself, to border on the incomprehensible. So completely does she capture her subject’s hard-learned speech, the genderless stride, the flashes of terror and brilliance and, occasionally, radiant joy, that it’s impossible to find a trace of the actor beneath.

By Hank Stuever in the Washington Post:

“Temple Grandin” is at once inventive, emotional, funny and determinedly precise about what it means to say. It moves backward, forward and sideways through Temple’s life story, unafraid to tinker with concepts of chronology and meaning as it creates its own visual language to depict the world through an autistic prism. It raises awareness and respect without insisting that you wear the rubber cause bracelet; it is that very rare made-for-TV movie that can be sappy without overserving the sap.

Jonathan Storm in the Philadelphia Inquirer:

It’s a performance that has “Emmy” written all over it.

Mark A. Perigard in the Boston Herald: Claire Danes shines as Temple Grandin in HBO’s poignant ‘Temple Grandin’

Alex Strachan in the Montreal Gazette: Beautiful film about a beautiful mind

Mark Dawidziak in the Cleveland Plain Dealer TV blog: Claire Danes dazzles in movie about autism advocate

Neal Justin in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: Great Danes; Actress’ career gets back in the saddle with an Emmy-worthy performance

Best-selling author and animal scientist Temple Grandin, well known for her work advancing the humane treatment of cattle, is again the focus of media attention as the subject of an upcoming HBO biopic, to be aired in February.

She’s played by actress Claire Danes (left, as Grandin).

Dr. Grandin has written and spoken widely about her life as a person with autism.

On NPR, Talk of the Nation’s Neal Conan conducts an extended interview with Grandin.  “You may also know that she is autistic and spends a lot of her time explaining how that makes her different, not less,” he says. “You may not know how she avoided being institutionalized as a young girl, how she learned the social skills to engage the world, and how she overcame bullies, skeptics, ignorance, and her own fears to make a real difference in the world. An excerpt of the interview:

CONAN: And I wonder, did HBO get the story right?

Dr. GRANDIN: Yes, Claire Danes was just brilliant in playing me. The movie is all in the ’60s and the ’70s, when I was a lot more autistic acting and when I first started my work.

CONAN: There’s a picture of you on the Web standing next to Claire Danes at a premier, at the screening of this film in New York last night.

Dr. GRANDIN: Well, the thing was amazing is how Claire totally changed into me. You know, if you look at her from a picture from last night at party you’d never think that, you know, that she could become like me. I mean, shes just amazing, and how she totally turns into the character that she’s acting.

New York Times writer Rick Lyman interviews Claire Danes, and says she “manages to be both emotionally transparent and intelligently complex” in the role.

(Photos from New York Times)

From EITB.com:

Among the featured offerings at this year’s Sundance Film Festival is Yo, También (Me, Too), a Spanish film about a college-educated man with Down syndrome who falls in love with his free-spirited co-worker.

The film explores themes of conformity and difference, and challenges public perceptions about the capabilities and needs of people with Down syndrome.

Pablo Pineda, who is reported to be the first person with Down syndrome to earn a college degree in Europe, received the Silver Shell best actor award at Spain’s leading film festival last year for his performance in the film. Co-star Lola Dueñas took best actress honors.

From the trailer:

She: Why me? You don’t know anything about me.

He: Because you make me feel normal.

She: And why do you want to be a normal person?

A music video featuring the film’s title song is here.

An interview with Pineda (in Spanish) is here.

(Photo from www.sundance.com)

They say portrayal of the movie’s hero is ‘inaccurate but uplifting’

From ABC News:

People with spinal cord injuries praised Avatar for its portrayal of a hero who uses a wheelchair, saying the movie marks a welcome change from the way Hollywood most often shows paraplegics.

“I didn’t feel like ["Avatar"] was a pity story about someone in a wheelchair,” said Muha, a communications associate at the National Spinal Cord Injury Association and the current Ms. Wheelchair New Jersey.

In 2004, the top Academy Award went to Million Dollar Baby, Clint Eastwood’s film about a female athlete who decides to die rather than live with paralysis.

Disability advocates said filmmaker James Cameron could have used some help making Avatar’s hero more realistic. Examples they cited: Cpl. Jake Sully, played by able-bodied Sam Worthington, didn’t use a seat cushion on his wheelchair, and seemed to labor too much when he got in and out of his wheelchair.

Earlier posts here.

By Anna Pickard in the [UK] Guardian

Extraordinary Measures, starring Brendan Fraser and Harrison Ford, features “a sad dad’s relentless efforts to fund a maverick medic’s search for a cure for his terminally ill kiddies.” The film was “inspired by” the story of John Crowley, a New Jersey dad who worked to find a cure for Pompe’s disease, a rare genetic disorder.

An excerpt:

The tagline is important in Extraordinary Measures. It appears right at the end of the trailer: “Don’t hope for a miracle. Make one.”

This could refer to many things. Conquering the apparently unconquerable through the power of the human spirit alone is a common enough theme at the movies. Or it could refer to a blatant attempt to win some award -– any award, but preferably a big, shiny, person-shaped one -– by an on-the-wane actor.

Extraordinary Measures will be released later this month.

Crowley and his family were featured in the book “The Cure: How a Father Raised $100 Million — and Bucked the Medical Establishment — in a Quest to Save His Children,” by Geeta Anand, which in turn started as a front-page story in the Wall Street Journal.

Anybody looking for outdated disability language in the media found lots of examples in holiday coverage of James Cameron’s ‘Avatar.’ The futuristic movie fantasy’s main character is an injured Marine who uses a wheelchair.

Just for reference, the AP Stylebook offers the following guidance on describing people who use wheelchairs:

“People use wheelchairs for independent mobility. Do not use confined to a wheelchair or wheelchair-bound.”

(Source: 2009 AP Stylebook, edited by Darrell Christian, Sally Jacobsen and David Minthorn)

Following are a few samples:

Earlier post here.

It’s being described as the most expensive movie ever made, a live-action 3D epic with a pricetag reported at close to $500 million. James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ premieres in Hollywood this week amid enthusiastic early reviews, with Australian actor Sam Worthington in the lead role.

Worthington’s character, Jake Sully, uses a wheelchair in the film. Not so the real-life Sam Worthington.

The film’s official site refers to Sully as “a former Marine confined to a wheelchair.” Here’s a sampling of the language journalists are using to introduce the character:

• MSNBC: “wheelchair-bound soldier”
• [UK] Times: “wheelchair-bound war hero”
• Associated Press: “a brawny former Marine who lost the power of his legs in battle on Earth”
• [Toronto] Globe and Mail blog: “a wheelchair-bound U.S. marine”
• Bloomberg.com: “a paraplegic former Marine”
• Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times: “the hero, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), who is a paraplegic”
• Michael Phillips in the Chicago Tribune: “our hero is paraplegic ex-Marine Jake Sully”
• New York Times: “a Marine who has lost the use of his legs fighting in a war he didn’t understand”
• Variety: “wheelchair-bound former Marine”
• Fox News: “a former Marine paralyzed from the waist down”
• Chicago Tribune: “a Marine who comes home from combat in a wheelchair”
• MTV.com: “crippled ex-Marine”
• Kirk Honeycutt in the Hollywood Reporter: “a crippled former Marine”
• Michael Bodey in the Australian: “wheelchair-bound former Marine”

(Image from trailer on avatarmovie.com)