Films involving Learning Difficulties

Learning Difficulties Minor

TITLE

Color Me Perfect (1996) (TV Film)

ALT__TITLE

DISABILITY

Learning Difficulty

COUNTRY

USA

LENGTH

GENRE

Drama

DIRECTOR

Michele Lee

CAST

Michele Lee

Susan Blakely

Robin Thomas

NOTES

I'm becoming sensitive about the way I throw housebricks at

these TV films. I really am trying to like them. But when they

borrow their story from another film (and this happens

frequently) I'm already looking around for a brick. Here the

original is Charly (1968), already revised in Phenomenon

(1996).

On the one hand we have the sweet and innocent Dina who

has learning difficulties or mental retardation, on the other the

scheming, manipulative scientists hankering after a Nobel

Prize. After being introduced to Dina who plays with young

children we are bombarded with science and given a low

salute to "moral responsibility"

After injecting chimps to make them more intelligent, not

something which is demonstrated, the scientists want a

human guinea pig. Dina has microencephaly, not sure what

that means. But after a series of injections she changes from

a rather awkward, seemingly happy woman into a 'rocket'

scientist who knows more than her mentors. Along way she

also acquires dress sense, deportment and a flashy hairdo.

But there are consequences. The chimps aren't sleeping and

Dina isn't sleeping, and when she is rolled onto the stage of a

prestiguous scientific conference the flashing lights cause her

to collapse.

There's a really funny scene where an emerging Dina is

sitting on a park bench and a jogger stops and sits besides

her. Within 2 minutes they're kissing. Now one can excuse

Dina, but the jogger?

What Dina learns is from books and the way she is tested is

through a series of quiz show type questions. This film falls

into the same trap of the films cited above. She does also

learn about poetry, music and art but it's for learning's sake.

There's conflict between the main two scientists who are

married and the wife becomes jealous of Dina.

At the end Dina goes off to find herself her idea of achieving

this is to become a teacher.

Notes