Adam

Today my Dad picked me up for some father daughter time that I remarked I didn't believe we had had since before Heather was born!

He took me to the restaurant of my choice (Olive Garden yummy!) and then we walked around the Winter Park village a little while until it was time to head into the theatre.

I knew this movie was gonna be rough from the time Dad first sent me the trailer. In reality it was a little like being emotionally backhanded.. hard.

Adam is a 29 yr old man with Asperger's Syndrome. In this movie he meets Beth, an NT (neurotypical) young woman for whom he develops an attraction and she with him. The movie focuses mostly on Adam and the social issues he has, with the relationship being the secondary plotline (to me anyways.. but it's also possible I viewed it that way because of Mikey).

I am honestly not sure I have ever had a harder time with a movie. From the opening scene till the end I think I was on the verge of crying 75% of the movie. The actor himself deserves an award for his unbelievably accurate portrayal of Asperger's. From the erratic eye contact to the difficulty expressing himself to the animated and run together sentences on a topic he was passionate about..Spot on.

There may be some spoilers past this point so stop reading if you plan to see this and don't like them.

I have always felt sympathy for people who got emotional during movies that touched on some major issue in their lives; cancer...suicide...rape.. etc etc. I didn't feel what they felt but I knew it must be hard. I was wrong. It's agonizing.

The scene where Adam slams his head against a mirror I had to close my eyes and just breathe. The scene where he covers his ears and starts melting down because he doesn't wanna move; where he lashes out at Beth because she lied to him.

The look on his face as he contemplates the thought of a social situation.. his anguish at being unable to make himself do something she's asked him to do. I wanted to reach thru the screen and hug him so many times.. and all I could think of was Mikey.

Was the movie all sad and anger? No. There were a number of funny scenes.. heartwarming scenes. So many times where I would chuckle because I could SO see Mikey doing that. But the future is always on my mind. I wanna be there for him.. help him. That's why I read every account of adult's with Asperger's I can find. And that's why I saw this movie. So I can understand him as much as possible and help him grow.

Anyone who has someone on the autism spectrum in their lives should see this movie, in my opinion. I would love for everyone in Mikey's life to see it (and thank you Granny and Grampy.. I love you guys so much). If the only thing you come away from this movie with is a realization of what it's like for my kid and thousands of others like him, then I am happy.

It didn't exactly end how I expected but instead, it ended better. With Adam in a better place than he had been. And Beth was reponsible for a large majority of that. If Mikey ends up where Adam does one day, I can rest easy.