Review: Mozart and the Whale

Josh Hartnett plays a taxi driver with a bit of a numbers fixation and who has Asperger’s Syndrome. This hasn’t stopped him from doing his job, nor from starting up a support group for people who have issues with fitting into ‘mainstream’ society, and are thus somewhat lonely. That’s not to say that Hartnett is free of his own social awkwardness, especially when he meets a pretty young woman who turns up to one of his meetings. Played by Radha Mitchell, she’s abrasive, sometimes flat-out rude, and Hartnett (who has a problem with making eye contact) clearly has a thing for her. It’s the most socially awkward ‘meet cute’ in cinematic history. The film follows their attempt at having a romantic relationship, just like any other couple. Other members of the group are played by John Carroll Lynch, Erica Leehrsen, Rusty Schwimmer, Allen Evangelista, and (a truly terrible) Sheila Kelley. Gary Cole turns up briefly as a potential employer for Hartnett.

 

Anyone who has any experience with or has encountered people somewhere along the Autism or Asperger’s spectrum can attest to the wide variety of behaviours. No two cases appear to be alike. Some you wouldn’t even detect anything different about, at least not unless you become close to them over a period of time. Others are pretty close to Dustin Hoffman in “Rain Man”. So making a film about characters who have Asperger’s is a tricky thing, because while the film is apparently loosely inspired by a real-life couple, the behaviour on display in the film isn’t necessarily going to ring true to everyone who watches it. I’ve worked for a couple of years alongside someone who has Autism and Asperger’s (who, like Dustin Hoffman, did not particularly like to be touched and was more fond of asking questions than being asked them for some reason), as well as someone who has a very mild form of the latter, but you wouldn’t even suspect it at first meeting. So while I’m no expert on the subject, let me say that when I tell you that this 2005 romance from director Petter Naess (a Norwegian in his first American effort) and screenwriter Ron Bass (“Rain Man”, the cornball “Dangerous Minds”) did not resonate as realistic to me, it’s not just because the characters weren’t behaving closely to what I’ve known through my limited experience with people who have Asperger’s. I was well aware going in that my understanding of Asperger’s and Autism wasn’t anywhere near good enough to make such a judgement. No, what bothered me was the fact that actors Josh Hartnett and Radha Mitchell (and the supporting cast of ‘crazies’ who seem like leftovers from “The Dream Team”) never once made their characters’ behaviour seem anything other than actors trying doggedly to act ‘quirky’. I never bought these as characters at any point in the film. It was all phony and actory. It proved so distracting and annoying that I spent the entire film at arm’s length, which is a shame, because a love story involving two characters with behavioural disabilities is an extremely worthy one.

 

The filmmakers seem to understand the illness in general, but the actors have taking it all over the top to the point where Hartnett seems a cocked-headed gesture away from muttering ‘Definitely not my underwear…’ (this from the Oscar-winning screenwriter of the excellent “Rain Man”, where the remarkable Dustin Hoffman made all the tics and behaviours seem completely organic) Yes, sometimes people with Asperger’s will be so socially awkward that they take things too literally, but the example of breaking records shown in the film is silly and insulting, especially given Radha Mitchell’s character is clearly not severely autistic like a “Rain Man”-type. The film shows that people with such social awkwardness will occasionally talk too loudly in public (which is true), but the film and actress Mitchell (who is better than this film allows her to be) completely overdo it. I just wasn’t buying the loud outbursts, not because it didn’t register with the examples I’ve come across over the years, but because the film simply didn’t make me believe it. It seemed like a put-on by Mitchell, given her behaviour the rest of the time was (forgive the awful term) ‘normal’. I hate that term, being physically disabled myself, but I trust you know what I mean in using it, and my obvious non-malicious intent. I know it’s bizarre to use the term ‘inconsistent’ in regards to someone with an intellectual/behavioural disability (I really don’t think of Autism or Asperger’s as an intellectual disability, it seems more behavioural), but I just didn’t buy the behaviour as realistic. A lot of the time she just came across as a flaky girl who yelled occasionally. I’m pretty sure that’s not what I was meant to think.

 

The best I can say for Mr. Hartnett here is that it could’ve been worse, Jeremy Davies could’ve had the role. And don’t even get me started on the cackling, overweight woman played by Rusty Schwimmer, who doesn’t seem impaired in anyway, so much as just silly and acting ‘off’. She’s just being kooky for the sake of really bad comedy. The film shows that these people can live normal, independent lives, hold jobs etc. (Something I already knew, of course!), and I liked that. I also thought there was at least one brilliant idea in the film: You think it’s bad when your partner rearranges your living space? Try being in that situation when you have Asperger’s. That was hilarious.

 

There’s some worthy stuff here, in theory. The ingredients are there, but the execution is a bit of a disaster. Remove the supporting cast of ‘comedy kooks’ and you’ve got a significantly improved film, but still a far from flawless one, given the too ‘affected’ central performances. This indie romcom just isn’t any good, and treats Asperger’s as a ‘quirk’ to differentiate the film from all the other indie romcoms out there. I admire the idea, frown upon the result. I’d be fascinated to know what those with closer association to people with such disorders or illness make of this film.

 

Rating: C