Autism movie review: ‘Fly Away’
Written on 3rd Jul 2020 by Alex Lowery
To this day Rain Man is likely still the most well known and popular representation of autism in film. However, there have been countless numbers of other films released since then that also represent different cases of autism. One example is the 2011 film, ‘Fly Away’. This representation is extremely different from Rain Man. For one thing, it isn’t about the talents of a middle aged male autistic savant but rather it represents a severely autistic teenage girl with little to no speech.
It’s also more focussed on her parents perspective more than it is her’s. The editing is also very different from Rain Man. When the girl is experiencing anxiety and sensory overload, there aren’t as many uses of shots, quick edits and shaky cam as there is in Rain Man. There are close up shots sometimes but the shots tend to go on for longer and there isn’t the same variety. This clearly shows how different it is from Rain Man, which captured both the autistic perspective of Raymond and the neurotypical perspective of his brother perfectly. I feel because ‘Fly Away’ focuses more on the parents struggle of raising a child, the creators don’t quite feel the same need to edit in a way that helps us to see the autistic person’s perspective as well. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing because it wasn’t the creator’s intention but I personally do prefer them to show more of the autistic perspective.
Watch the trailer below.
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