Josh Hartnett in Mozart and The Whale

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Does anybody think he did a good job in the film? I saw it and was very dissapointed with his performance. I read on Wikipedia that Kevin Spacey and Hilary Swank were going to be the main couple. Too bad they couldn't do it. I also read that Rachel Weisz was going to play Isabelle until the last minute, that would have been intresting.[b]

Last edited by Snoopy on 31 May 2007, 2:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I, actually, did like Josh Hartnett as the main character, although his character seemed to border more on the high functioning autistic side, rather than Asperger's. I don't like Kevin Spacey, so I'm glad he didn't play the lead. Hilary Swank probably would have been a better choice for the role of Isabelle.

I thought the part was overplayed, more of a high functioning Autistic than an Aspie. This may not be his fault, as he may have only been given enough info and experience to play the part as he was played. But of the Aspies I have known, only 1 or 2 have acted as unique as he played the role.

I did plan to give the film to my aquaintances to help explain about AS but was too embarassed to because most of the characters were exaggerated. However that is probably necessary for the purposed of the film. If they had been acting too normal then no one would get what it is about - it would just become a comedy with slightly geeky people doing "funny" things for people to laugh at. I did relate to the boy with the egg whisk though...

I'm going to have to watch this movie again.
I know I found the girl part rather annoying and exaggerated, but I can't really remember Josh's performance too much.
And I can't recall the boy with the whisk
Not unusual for me tho', having memory fail me...

Personally apart from the numbers thing I felt that his portrayal was spot-on and very natural. I was stunned because a lot of the hand mannerisms were very much what I do, and I had never seen them elsewhere before.

How can you tell? I mean, speech delay would've been long in the past by that point.

I'm pretty sure you do not simplify things so much as to say "speech delay = autism" and "no delay = AS"... Why the question?

Well, I mean, it seems weird to me that a person thinks they can tell whether someone has "autism" or "AS" by looking. By adulthood, the differences that make up the difference between the two diagnoses (such as early speech history, etc) are not going to necessarily be obvious. I know people with definite AS diagnoses who look more stereotypically autistic than Josh Hartnett did in that film. And the idea that a person can tell by looking confuses me.

What's strange is I don't remember him doing anything unusual with his hands, even though people keep saying this. I also don't think *I* do anything unusual, except it's been pointed out to me recently, so maybe I just wouldn't notice the performance...

I have mixed feelings about that film. Too much of it seemed overblown.

Strange to me how some people say that they were "overblown" etc.

And then other people say they "didn't look autistic enough".

Interesting.

I actually haven't seen this movie yet and my question is,
Is this movie worth seeing?

anbuend, yep, That's the problem with this movie. Some people are offended at the mistakes "Donald" is shown to make. Some think that the autistic group is stereotyped (though they are distinct). Some think Isabelle isn't even autistic because the storyline emphasizes her PTSD more strongly.
I really don't know what to make of it all. I read tons of posts here describing people that can't hold jobs (or can), can't finish school (or do), don't have romantic relationships are celibate for years (or are happily married) and what do we make of this? People on the spectrum are different with different problems, generally in the same area. One shouldn't take this movie so personally. I liked it and wasn't offended by the characters at all.

I thought Josh H did a great job. I have met an aspie before who acted a lot like him IRL, so I don't think it's far-fetched for an aspie like him to exist somewhere. Or even one who has more behaviors associated w/ autism. Like anbuend pointed out, by adulthood, you really wouldn't be able to tell the difference between someone w/ AS and someone w/ HFA. I bet there are plenty of people on here who were actually diagnosed as HFA or even LFA as children and now as adults are able to communicate really well, making them "look" more like aspies. I honestly don't think there is any difference between someone w/ autism and someone w/ AS other then the severity of the communications problems. I am also upset every time someone tells me that LFA are ret*d and that's why they're low-functioning. That's obviously not true! Just because they can't communicate well enough to score high on an IQ test doesn't mean they are actually incapable of problem solving and understanding what's going on around them.

As for how Mary acts in the movie, when I was in college, I acted crazy like her. I was the loudest person on campus. I was actually popular for the first time in my life, but I still didn't have any friends. It was a coping mechanism. Even though I still didn't fit in and still didn't have "real" friends, I felt like I was having fun and people liked me.

i think he did a good job.

He was flicking his fingers and hands especially in the scene where he discovers his flat has been "tidied up".