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I Find This Movie Incredibly Offensive to People with Disabilities

posted 12 years ago by NoMoreMissNiceGirl
4 replies | jump to latest

Just watched this on Netflix and I was pretty appalled. No one's behavior in this movie is excused, including the choices of the directors and producers. Told from three points of view? Hardly. Jakob is given the least time of all. And I understand that this movie is supposed to be "realistic," but the language is offensive - The mother talking to him like a small child, "Mommy wants you to do this," let alone her likely abuse of him, is no better than the father saying he had a "normal son" before. Paige's sexual assault of him - giving him no choices as to what to do.

I just....I can't. Even if this was meant to be sick, there was still not voice given to Jakob.

[–] luxemichael 12 years ago

I get what you're saying but....these things really happen. I've seen it firsthand. Since we don't really know how Jakob's character would interpret what he's experiencing, maybe that was why it seems he doesn't have a voice. In reality, a person with this condition literally does not. How would you have given him a voice? What way would you change the story? Serious questions. I had a special needs child and I wasn't offended but I understand where someone might be. They get lost in the shuffle of everyone trying to do the "right" things for them. It often gets messy just like this and worse. :(

[–] gl64075 11 years ago

I don't think it's at all offensive to people like Jakob. They are likely unable to comprehend what this movie is about. Their cognitive disabilities prevent them from being able to be offended by a movie.

[–] dedeurs 8 years ago

To find out what your problem is, I would have to view the movie and right now I'm not up to it. However, I saw the trailer and read a few reviews and it's on my watch list.
But you seem to me one of those sometimes insufferable 'feelgood' people. White folks who scream 'Racism!' without caring to know if colored people agree, or were even aware that there was racism involved. In The Netherlands we have a political party backed by such world savers.
I guess you, out of over-reactive prejudice, refused to watch a lot of funny and endearing and brilliant movies. Rain Man? The Miracle Worker? My Left Foot? Fellini's Casanova? The Marx Brothers with their Jewish self-ridiculing? Movies where the black man is the very bad guy or the black woman the total bitch? Gay themed classics? Come to that- how about the Doris Day & Rock Hudson vehicles? The IDEA that a heterosexual Aryan actress had fun with an Jewish actor she was very fond of but didn't know him to be gay! What an insult to the female race. Maybe she simply didn't want to consider such a thing, there! an insult again: to the discriminated homosexual race!
Take your pick.
Anyway, don't bother to look these titles up. I'm sure they will make you sick.

[–] RobertEvans (10) 2 years ago

Do you have a disabled person in your family? Are you close to any?

I'm guessing *some* mentally disabled people are like this, even if some/most are not. So I'm not sure why this would bother you. (I'm guessing many ordinary mothers would address a special-needs offspring in this way.)

And abuse/disparagement of all kinds of people is sadly common. The movie is realistic in that regard, if dark. But abuse is an intrinsic element of many films, including this one.