 |
Learning
Difficulties Major 
>
|
|
|
DISABILITY |
Learning
difficulty Wheelchair |
|
DIRECTOR |
Billy Bob
Thornton
|
|
NOTES |
At age 12 a
boy with learning difficulties murdered his mother and her
boyfriend. 25 years later he is released from mental hospital
supposedly cured. |
|
This could
be a re-run of Halloween but instead it is a finely |
|
detailed
study of a (redneck?) community and the man |
|
himself.
After making friends with a boy he is invited home |
|
and invited
to live in the garage of the boy's mother. |
|
A superb
film, don't be deterred by the beginning which is a |
|
monologue
explaining why the boy killed. Thornton is great as |
|
actor,
writer and director. You rarely see someone with |
|
learning
difficulties so convincing portrayed. There are |
|
improbabilities (the mother offering such a strange man a |
|
place in her
home) and cliches (the man's friendship with the |
|
young boy,
his skill with machines) but these are absorbed |
|
into a
finely woven picture of small town life. |
|
Great
support casting and good to see John Ritter back on |
|
form. One of
the boyfriend's mates is in a wheelchair. |
|
If you're
into the art of directing look out for the unusual though |
|
not
intrusive camera angles, and the scenes shot without the |
|
camera
moving. One result of this is to put you in the position |
|
of a witness
to the events. |
|
Notes
|
|
