Review: The Black Balloon

The semi-autobiographical story of a Sydney family (including heavily pregnant mum Toni Collette), who have just relocated yet again due to dad’s (Erik Thomsen) job as an army officer, which particularly takes its toll on pensive teen son Rhys Wakefield, who has to start all over again in a new school. He feels like he has enough to deal with given his brother Luke Ford is severely autistic (to the point of not speaking, only signing), and with mum ‘up the duff’ and dad often absent, it puts even further responsibility on the teenager at a time in his life where all he wants to do is get to know the pretty girl in school (Aussie model Gemma Ward). All of this causes the well-meaning but angsty Wakefield to start to resent his brother (who, by the way, is fond of visiting strangers’ bathrooms, running around the street in his undies and other such social embarrassments).

Although I’m a fan of Barry Levinson’s 1988 big audience pleaser “Rain Man”, this 2008 Aussie drama from debutant director/co-writer Elissa Down is perhaps the most believable, and emotionally truthful depiction of autism I’ve ever seen. Given that Down has two autistic brothers, and Ford’s utterly convincing performance (If I didn’t know beforehand, I’d have been fooled into thinking he wasn’t acting!), this whole film just seems spot-on to me. My own experience with autism is merely limited to formerly working with a (pretty high-strung but mostly cheerful) autistic girl, but she wasn’t quite as dependant as Ford’s character here, and I gather that there are many different levels of autism. In fact, before I worked with this young lady, my idea of autism was based on “Rain Man”, that is, I figured they were all super-smart, but emotionally neutered people, people who simply were an emotional blank slate, which turned out not to be the case with this girl. Anyway, I’m rambling. Taking the autism away, as a (physically) disabled person myself I actually found a lot of truth in it, with the way the family sacrifice so much for this child with special needs, the potential for jealousy or feelings of neglect for non-disabled siblings, the social embarrassments etc. It was all very, very real, and excellently conveyed here. And it was a captivating story too!

Yup, here was a high-minded Aussie film that didn’t make me want to throw something at the TV screen. And in case you might be thinking this film is all doom and gloom, it’s far from it. In fact, I laughed out loud at some of it, though some of that was in mere recognition of events and observations I know to be true. That’s not to suggest the film is a sanitised, popcorn flick, this is sometimes very confronting stuff, and although he can be a sweet boy, Ford is awfully hard to bear at times, and not just for his family, his tantrums can be a bit tough for an audience to put up with, too (And it’s rather unflinching and honestly depicted). In addition to Ford’s astonishing work (creating a flesh and blood character, not just a disability and a bunch of actory tics), former soap star Wakefield is excellent in portraying a character who might be unlikeable in a lesser actor’s hands, but Wakefield makes you understand and sympathise with his plight. He just wants a ‘normal’ family, a ‘normal’ brother, and a ‘normal’ life (and he does clearly love his brother). He’s a teenager for chrissakes! Collette (offering much more than just marquee value) and Thomsen (who has a relaxed, laidback quality to his accommodating but busy father character), meanwhile are playing two of the nicest, most accommodating, loving, and patient parents you will likely ever come across. They love both of their kids, even when one likes to fling poo, and the other is so embarrassed by his autistic brother that he doesn’t want to be seen with him. I guess more than anything, the film made me, as a disabled person, truly appreciate what caregivers and family go through in the upbringing of someone with a disability. And I’m a self-absorbed twerp who takes everything for granted, believe me!

If there’s a flaw, and it’s really only a minor one, it would be that supermodel Ward (though giving an accomplished performance) is simply too good to be true here, a real teen girl (from my experiences and feelings anyway) would feel a lot more awkward around Ford, albeit unintentionally. She’s just too accepting too easily and too quickly, for my mind. I also found that the school kids who tease Wakefield and Ford were a bit too mean to be realistic. I mean, most of the kids who were mean to me simply ignored me, but there’s a difference between autism and spina bifida I guess.

Here it is folks, an Aussie film that had the critics lauding it, whilst offering something genuinely interesting for audiences too, without pandering to crass ocker comedy and other safe, $$-motivated entertainments.

Rating: B+