Teenage Angst For Real: 

THE BLACK BALLOON

The Black Ballon is the kind of film that deserves more attention that you know it won't get.  It's got international awards from the Berlin and Edinburgh film festivals.   A stellar cast is led by the always superbly excellent Toni Collette,  but I can hear the execs: what is it?  Australian.  A story about autism?  An Australian story about autism, an American audience won't get it.

What's not to get?  It's a lovely little film about a not at all glamorous family dealing with a very difficult situation.  Thomas (Rhys Wakefield) is a teenager in a new town, at a new high school trying to fit in.  As hard as that is he's got an older and bigger brother Charlie (Luke Ford) who is severely autistic to the extent that he doesn't even speak but rather grunts and yells.  At the same time he is bigger and stronger than Thomas, so when he's out of control, it's not that easy to reel him back in.  Mum (Toni Collette) is the kind of take charge, do-it-all mother who manages to keeps the household humming, but when she is hospitalized for the last few months of her pregnancy, it's time for everyone else, Thomas and Dad (Erik Thomson) to keep Charlie on track.  Needless to say, things do fall apart for awhile.  In the meantime, Thomas embarks on a new romance with a very patient and sympathetic girlfriend, Jackie. played by supermodel Gemma Ward.

This is the kind of film I call lovely because it is elicits sentiment without manipulation. It also is perfectly paced with very little extraneous filler, every scene, even if it looked as if it might be heading into cliche territory (all those budding romantic walks in the fields) it would veer off course.   It neither wallows in hopelessness nor offers a pat happy ending because there is no simple happy ending for families with severely autistic children.  As Mum points out Charlie will never be able to live on his own to the very honestly non-saintly Thomas who cannot help but resent him.  What is outstanding about this very simple story is that very honesty, a credit once again to some really strong performances by the  principals.  This is human family drama, not heightened melodrama seeking to wring out tears. 

Even the distractingly model-waif Ward manages to blend in to the best of her ability.  She is not made up or overdressed, just maybe a little thinner than the average teenage girl.  She was very natural, modest and shy.  Mr. Wakefield was the key to the story the center from whose point of view we experience the drama and he was outstanding as the awkward teen with a good reason to be.  

Being utterly fatigued by all of the coming of age comedies and dramas that it seems will never go away, I was half expecting to roll my eyes through this.  But we are spared wet dreams and nerds fantasizing about cheerleaders.  It's a story about actually growing up and figuring out that the world doesn't revolve around you and your issues. Yes the good looking boy gets together with the good looking girl, but as everyone knows, even the cheerleaders have their secrets.  

The Black Balloon opens December 5, 2008.

Directed by Elissa Down; written by Elissa Down and Jimmy Jack; produced by Tristam Miall; Director of Photography, Denson Baker Acs; music by Michael Yezerski.  Released by NeoClassics Films, Ltd. Running time: 97 minutes.

With: Toni Collette (Mum), Rhys Wakefield (Thomas), Luke Ford (Charlie), Gemma Ward (Jackie) and Erik Thomson (Simon).