Ben X

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thanks i'm going to go and see that

I just finished watching it. For the most part I liked it...But the ending was a lil too strange for my liking.

If I knew how to do the "spoiler" thing (when you can hide text and people have to move their mouse over to see) I would tell you what I think of the ending, but I can't since it would spoil the movie for others

I just watched it finished it today. I partially liked the ending but then I also didn't like the very very ending. I'd say more and almost would but, I'm not sure if I should.

Shadi2, I think we/you could just give a warning at the beginning of your post and tell people not read it if they haven't seen the movie.

Same here about the ending and the very very ending.

Yes I guess I could, but its risky lol

yeah, I'm not sure either, maybe you're right.

thanks for the advice tho, I will use it in another thread, it is not about a movie but the movie is mentioned

I watched Ben X several months ago and thought it depicted the harshly unvarnished truth, but also felt it was a wonderful and totally realistic movie that I would recommend to any Aspie or person who wants to understand what life is like for Aspies.

Somebody asked about the ending. As I saw it, the ending showed Ben triumphing over those who bullied him by making it look like he jumped off the boat, then taking advantage of NT mourning to force them to see how they had treated him in life. Then the very ending showed him together with his his fantasy friend Scarlite while his mom showed total understanding and acceptance of his different world and was just thankful to have him no matter what state of mind he was in. I think that message is one that more NTs should learn to accept.

For those with usenet access who don't have the movie and would like to get a copy, you can find an NZB file to a high definition copy of it by searching on binsearch<dot>info for it. It was posted on 13 Oct 2010. If it is the same copy I saw it has English subtitles built in.

yeah, i'm not sure it's a good message for Nts to say that people on the spectrum live in a different world filled with imaginary friends though. I never had one and i'm pretty sure it's not THAT common, after all we're supposed to "lack imagination", not "live in an imaginary world"...Nts are confused enough about us as it is...

This was the part that was bothering me. I think autistics have a different kind of imagination not lacking, and Ben clearly shows this. However when it becomes more than imagination and becomes imaginary it develops into something more than autism, it becomes schizophrenia that's brought on by the trauma of the whole event. So while during the course of the film we see flashbacks through his long struggle with his diagnosis (again another point that strikes home pretty hard) which settles in to Asperger's, if we continue after the movie, I wouldn't be surprised to see them add schizophrenia to the list. And to me this changes the movie from 'a boy with (mild) autism who is bullied' to a film about 'a boy with (severe) mental illness who is bullied'.

Thanks for the heads up on this film. Just subscribed to Netflix last weekend so will definitely try to watch it.

I really liked "Ben X". In fact, out of all the films made about AS- (at least the ones that I know about)- this is my favorite. I felt that this film actually portrayed life as lived through the eyes of a person with AS, whereas other films seemed to be about AS people as seen by NT´s- (meaning, external stereotypical features as opposed to internal reality).

Many people mentioned how difficult it is to watch; I agree, but unfortunately, the reality is even worse. According to the director, this film was based on a true story about a teenager who was bullied so badly in school that he ended up committing suicide. That story troubled him and touched him so deeply that he decided to make a film about it.

Though hard to watch- (I closed my eyes during the park scene the first time I watched it, and my stomach was totally contracted throughout much of the movie)- I think the darker aspects really add to the film and make it a realistic portrayal of AS. I thought I might add that I thought all of the actors were excellent!

I even liked the "ending-ending". I have often had imaginary relationships myself, though I never talked to them aloud like that. But I can relate to all aspects of the film, even if I have lived through them on a smaller scale (thankfully) than Ben himself.

The one that I dislike is Mozart and the Whale. I thought it was an interesting movie that was worth watching, but my impression was that it did not at all give a representative view of what Aspergers is really like and showed that the writers and producers had too little real understanding of AS to begin with. Mozart seemed to me to present an unorganized hodgepodge of secondary traits of AS without any understanding at all of the basic underlying factors of social isolation, communications difficulties and obsessions (well, they did depict a lot of obsessions). It was somewhat akin to a movie showing a drug addict robbing a liquor store and going through withdrawal without considering with his addiction to begin with. None of the so called Aspies in Mozart impressed me as being socially isolated at all and they all seemed highly communicative. There were no language comprehension delays at all and indeed the people in the movie seemed to me to be highly engaged, responsive, spontaneous and a bit too quick to respond to possibly depict AS. It is said that some Aspies speak either too loudly or too softly, but it was very one-sided in this movie with everyone speaking too loudly, which began to irritate me after a while. I guess the producers had to do this for the dramatic effect though... after all it IS Hollywood.

Two things about the movie did ring a familiar bell with me though. The mess in the guy's apartment with stacks of things everywhere is very familiar. Then there was a scene where Donald's new boss came to his apartment where Isabelle was talking on and on in that same loud voice. For just a couple of seconds you see Donald hearing all those sounds but tuning it out almost like being in a dream state in which the words are there but mean nothing. This is shows exactly how my mind feels when people start running on and on. This same dreamlike state of incomprehension is also what is shown continuously throughout the movie in Ben X. Another thing that caught my eye was when Donald was driving the taxicab and suddenly "saw" his route laid out visually in front of him like a heads up display in a fighter plane. I see the same sort of visual presentation of my thoughts too, only about 100 times more subtle than what was shown in the movie. It was a good movie that does serve to raise awareness of autism, but the producers really should have tried to be more accurate in their depiction.

Oh, I didn´t like "Mozart and the Whale" much either. First off, the music really irritated me. I also had the feeling they were trying too hard to make the movie funny and entertaining for NTs. It´s not that I have a problem with humor, it´s just that I found the humor in that movie contrived.

I agree that the movie focused too much on secondary traits, without any real understanding about AS. It was harder for me to empathize or relate to the characters, for that reason.

I also had the problem, in that movie, that I sometimes took the words too literally. Someone would say something, but I would understand it exactly like the main male character- i.e.,literally- so at times, it felt like the text was jumping from place to place, I couldn´t always understand quite what was going on. (I figured that out when I watched it again though). I realize how often I figure out what something really "means" in a movie by the reaction of the NT character- it acts as a cue to get me to think in the right direction. So I felt kind of left out because of that....

It was quite difficult to watch. I just managed it in one sitting. I related to Ben more than I liked, but I really, really liked the end. IMO, this is the most accurate representation of Asperger's I've seen in a movie. It's an excellently made film; I definitely recommend it, although probably not for anyone still in high school or too soon after. It hits hard.

sorry got bumping the thread from the grave
it was one of the only moves I have related to