Review of X+Y (2014) by Richard B — 28 Apr 2015

Love Conquers Autism.

Don't let the realistic performance and pathos fool you - here is yet another tale of autistic boys, with all the stock ingredients in the cupboard.

As a father of a boy with Aspergers syndrome, I have now seen quite a number of these, and this is a good one, except for the basic premises that these movies, books, films and plays ALWAYS use to wrench at your emotions or make the autistic person the object of laughter or pathos. Common elements:

* It is about a boy (in a world of boys.).

* He does not like to be touched.

* He is a GENIUS (maths, natch!).

* Love conquers/mitigates his autism - so he is cured in the end (but not really!).

This is the same plot as in Rain Man, Curious Incident, Rosie Project and now X+Y. This is, however, one the less trite efforts at this formula.

It is well cast - Sally Hawkins, Rafe Spall and Asa Butterfield are uniformly excellent. The script is charming and much more realistic than most. I enjoyed it up to a point, and that point was it's inevitable, highly unrealistic conclusion where:

1. The autistic boy falls in love with a Chinese girl and can 'relate' to her.

2. He explodes in tears to his long suffering mother, who he has never once touched.

3. His mother and his suffering teacher (MS) become romantically involved. (Men usually die or are crippled in some way in these tales).

4. He does not become birdbrain of Britain, as his heart breaks and he cares more about people than maths for the first time in his life.

I many be a cynic (OK, I am), but I have a son with autism and I can smell bullshit from a country mile. The cinema was full of older women weeping, by the way. No shock there.