Best Representation of Asperger's/Autism on film

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Personally, I feel like Adam is the best film to date that has had a good representation of what it is like to be on the spectrum. I love that movie. I felt Mozart and the Whale was a little too extreme at times. I also think that A Beautiful Mind and The Social Network can be considered films worth looking at even though the characters weren't diagnosed. However, I would be shocked if John Nash from A Beautiful Mind didn't have Asperger's Syndrome.

So, what do you consider the best portrayal of autism or Asperger's on film?

Temple Grandin is my favorite movie about autism. I thought it did a great job of expressing what overwhelming situations feel like. For fiction, I thought Adam was great. When he felt betrayed, it reminded me of how strong my reactions can be, and how incomprehensible they can be to NT people. As for a non-diagnosed Aspergers character, Punch Drunk Love is weird but I liked it.

I think real Mark Zuckerburg might be on the spectrum, but the guy in The Social Network seemed more obsessed with social status than with invention, and what could be less autistic than that? Really-- I think the whole motivation that Sorkin gave for the creation of Zuckerburg-- being jilted by a girl-- seems like one of the things that Sorkin does not understand about the kind of people he was trying to wwrite about was how the Asperger's mind functions.

But maybe other people have a good reason for thinking that the Mark Zuckerburg in the movie has Aspergers. I'd be very interested. And I still liked the movie.

I think Temple Grandin and Adam are pretty good. I also have to suggest Amadeus. Intentionally or unintentionally, Mozart really comes off as an aspie in that movie, plus it's a really good movie in general.

I haven't seen Amadeus since it came out-- I want to check it out now and see what I think!

I haven't seen a lot of films with supposed AS characters, but I think Punch-Drunk Love did a pretty great job in depicting what it's like to have aspergers, though as stated above it's never made explicit in the film. But everything down to the lighting, score and camerawork gives the viewer a sense of the protagonist's state of mind; it's almost too uncomfortable at times.

Please don't give it away, but tell me a little bit about what the beginning of Adam is like. And also, when did it come out.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnoNQa_qUm4[/youtube]

Adam is a young man with Aspergers whose life falls apart when his father dies. He meets a young NT woman and they fall in love.

It came out in 2009.

Really? I didn't think Mozart acted like an autistic at all in Amadeus. Sure, he often went against social rules, but it seemed like he did it more because he thought he was better than other people rather than having a genuine lack of understanding about how social rules work.

Anyway, my mom says that Snow Cake and Mozart and the Whale are the best Asperger's movies because she can see a lot of me in the female leads.

Am I alone in finding it fascinating that Hugh Dancy (Adam) and Claire Danes (Temple Grandin) are married in real life?

I also loved both Adam and Temple Grandin. I thought Mozart and the Whale was just irritating--I couldn't make it through. The two leads seemed far too "twitchy" and annoying to be very realistic, but that's my perception. I too thought that John Nash in A Beautiful Mind definitely came across as being more than a little AS.

I didn't know that about Hugh Dancy and Claire Danes, and, yeah, it fascinating.

I had very very mixed feelings about Mozart and the Whale-- it was very hard to watch, but I think that may be because the characters' more extreme mannerisms made them hard to relate to because we 're so unused to seeing people act like that in movies. But parts of it I really loved-- I laugh just like she does in that movie, with an upsetting bark.

I actually prefer Mozart and the Whale. Even though I'm male myself, my personality resembles that of the the female lead a lot and where it doesn't it resembles that of the male lead. Adam seemed unbalanced and artificial in many ways and the ending was just crap.

Snow Cake.

Opening scene: funeral of Adam's father. Apparently pappa has been protecting Adam from a great deal and now he is gone.

ruveyn

I believe Pi is the movie with the best interpretation of Asperger's Syndrome, despite the main character being undiagnosed. Pi is a psychological thriller about a math theorist who is obsessed with finding a pattern in Pi that can be used to describe everything in nature.

Don't beat me up for this but I always enjoyed the characterization of Napoleon Dynamite and I think it's very Asperger-y the way he presents himself and get easily irritated with people. I can totally relate.

I too think Punch Drunk Love is a compelling demonstration of an undiagnosed Asperger's character. Of all the films and shows I've seen, P.D.L. is the only one I can point to and say, "That is what it is like".