ScreenWize

Rarely does an audience burst spontaneously into applause at the end of a movie, but that’s what happened at the session of The Black Balloon that I watched. It’s a clear indication of the success of this film in connecting in such a warm way with those watching – many of whom were teenagers. It’s hardly surprising that it took out a Golden Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival in the Generation14plus category.

The Black Balloon is a very personal film based on some of the real experiences of co-writer and director Elissa Down who grew up with an autistic brother. The film is told through the eyes of Thomas (Rhys Wakefield), a 15-year-old boy who has moved to a new town and a new school. Like most people that age, Thomas just wants to fit in and be seen as normal– but it’s not easy when his older brother Charlie (Luke Ford) is autistic and also suffers from attention deficit disorder. For Charlie, running down the street in his underpants would be considered a fairly normal highlight for the day. To make matters worse for Thomas, his mother Maggie (Toni Collette) is heavily pregnant and his father Simon (Erik Thomson) wants Thomas to take care of Charlie. The film focuses on the relationship between the two boys as Charlie’s relentless misbehavior gets in the way of Thomas’s newfound relationship with schoolgirl Jackie (Gemma Ward).

For some, mere mention of the word autistic will have you muttering that this is not the film for you. Resist the self-censorship – director Down has created a very affectionate and very funny film in which Charlie’s intensely real personality overtakes any sense of his condition. Luke Ford creates in Charlie the unstoppable driving energy around which the other characters – particularly Thomas and Jackie as the teenagers discovering love - are forced to examine their sense of themselves. It’s Charlie who drives people to the edge of emotion – be it violence or laughter or tears of joy, and he will do the same to you.

It would have been easy for any of the characters to have become stereotypes, but the performances of the ensemble are real and endearing. In particular Toni Collette stands out as the woman who’s already taken the journey that Thomas must make. Down’s directorial hand is present not only in the great performances she gets, but in the strong visual touches of detail she brings to her storytelling. Take your teenaged children to this one. In fact, take everyone.

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Filed Under: Reviews by Simon