Roger Ross Williams’ documentary prompted by the best selling book by Ron Suskind about Owen his autistic son, is probably one of the most inspirational documentaries we will get to see this year. It tells the tale of how Suskind, a Pulitzer Award winning writer with The Wall Street Journal, and his wife Cornelia dealt with the discovery that at the age of 3 years old Owen was diagnosed with autism, and how the family embarked on a remarkable journey together over the next 20 years
After the initial diagnosis Owen just completely retreated inside himself and not only could he not function like a normal child, but he also stopped talking completely for the next two years. The Suskinds were warned by all the experts that even in the very unlikely event he did ever recover his speech, he would be unable to function at all without the help of others. They refused to accept this fatalistic scenario and with their older son Walter did everything they could to make Owen feel calm and collected, and at the same time they were always looking for anything that may possibly stimulate him.
They found it in the most unlikely source, as it turned out that the one thing that made Owen start to open up and even talk again, was his addiction to watching Disney classic movies. At this very young age he had memorized not just all the plots but every single script, and the family found totally by accident that the best way to communicate with him was using dialogue from any one of his favorite animated movies.
The Suskinds refer to this as their ‘eureka moment’ and they realized that by watching Aladdin and Peter Pan etc., Owen would not just learn to speak, but also to read and write. A lot of this history is shown in the form of old home movies, but also clever animated drawings that capture his troubled childhood and how he would eventually do so much more than just merely survive.
Now aged 23 Owen is about to graduate school which will entail him then moving out of his parents house into a condo of his own. He is fortunate to have the benefit of a whole gamut of doctors, social workers and behavioral experts who focus on making his life both function and succeed. Plus his parents who have devoted the past two decades into ensuring that he has every opportunity to become as independent as possible. However it is the disarmingly charming Owen who is aware of the limitations that his autism has put on him, but he still energetically strives to adapt to the fact that he is no longer a child and must now act like an adult.
Some of the best heart-tugging scenes (and they are many ) are with Owen and his older sibling Walter who dote on each other. It is Walter’s role to try and explain that relationships in life go beyond a mere chaste kiss that Owen knows from Disney romances, and that he will need to go further now that he has his first girlfriend. It seems though that this time around trying kissing using tongues is enough for Owen.
There are still flashes of hyper anxiety when the rapid-talking Owen struggles trying to rationalize and understand some of the disappointments in his life. However when his parents take him to be the guest speaker at a Conference on Autism in France he is articulate and eloquent about why it is so important for people who have this condition focus on an obsession …..like him and Disney …..to help them function in an otherwise hostile world. He gets a standing ovation from the delegates, and probably more than a few tears shed from the audience watching this documentary.
Life, Animated premiered at Sundance where it picked up the first of several awards it has since collected. It is essentially a story of an exceptional family who devoted themselves to ensure that Owen got a real fighting chance, and how very blessed he was to end up with them in his corner every part of the way.
Labels: 2016, documentary
