Before I Wake

source: Before I Wake

*****************SPOILERS BELOW************************ First of all, let me add to what other reviewers have said by repeating that Sally, the little girl, was NOT autistic. I thought it was a critical element of the story that no one knew what was the matter with her, and if you miss that point, the rest of the movie may indeed appear to be incomprehensible or glib. This movie reminded me somewhat of the play Equus (but not as dark). When someone has a spiritual wound, our society is extremely ill-equipped for providing spiritual healing. The best we can offer is psychology, but Kathleen Turner as Sally's mother instinctively knew that putting her child through a course of standard treatment would result in turning her daughter's psyche into "healthy shards." At the same time, I think the movie did an excellent job treading delicate ground by pointing out the flaw in using one approach (the psychological-treatment approach) for all emotional problems known and unknown, without condemning psychology itself, which has in fact given real help to countless people. Having said that, I have to add that the ending was both too tidy and too mysterious for my taste. But it was still a very lovely, very thought-provoking movie. Pay attention to what the movie is actually saying rather than trying to impose what you think it should say, and you will be rewarded for your efforts.

This film was educational about the problems that autistic children face. The part of the film that stays with me is when Tommy Lee Jones's character states that a lot of autistic children are misdiagnosed as crack babies or something else....even demonic possession. I work with autistic children and the repetition shown by the children in the movie is displayed. If you want to see a healthy environment for autustic children, this movie has it.

If anyone wants to know medical facts about any disease, he/she should read medical literature, ask a doctor, watch educational program on TV. This is a movie, so the authors have their freedom. Of course, they have certain responsibilities. They shouldn't show obvious mistakes and let us believe they're medical facts (or any other scientific facts) when the movie ends. I can understand upset parents who have to live with their own private horror and know it will last whole life through (without miracles after waking up), but in the end it is clearly shown this was not a case of autism. Traumas can cause extremely different pictures. In adults you can spend months and years searching for somatic cause for headaches, cardiac disorders, or even blindness before it becomes apparent there isn't any. Schizophrenic catatonia is an extreme example, showing neurological symptoms. In children one can find regression (behaving like a younger child) - like enuresis after even many years of successful urinary control. But behavior like autism is also possible. (I don't remember anyone objecting "Tommy", by the way, maybe because it's much more symbolic than the realistic "House of cards".) And traumas for children are often also trauma for adults (parents) who sometimes don't let the physician know the whole truth. Sometimes they're ashamed, sometimes feel guilty, sometimes diminish the cause or even have problems to deal with it themselves, so they deny it can have reflection on health of their child. These parents can also be expected to change doctors or institutions or the way of treatment. Especially in modern world when media give a great space to non-medical treatments, because they sell newspapers (or TV shows) more than real science and completely educated professionals. That can confuse parents, already shocked by disease and afraid of future, progressively with the seriousness of the diagnosis. The way media treat "official medicine" is also important. If their glorify different kinds of magicians and a real doctor can never be heard, let alone become a hero, you can expect parents with lack of belief and very much ready to try another approach, no matter how useless, unsuccessful and even harmful (at least because it means losing precious time). So however unrealistic and hard to watch for real autistic children's parents, this film is honest, even realistic (parents who believe their doctors must understand that there really exist parents who don't!) - and (last but not least) this film is good as a film. It is meant to enjoy it and not to teach medicine. And if you ask yourself some questions it can even upset you (but try "Lorenzo's Oil" if you want it deeper than your skin). Also, some comments (and mine too) could be more adequate in Message boards, so I suggest for any more comments like this Message board to be used, and this place left to viewers who want to give opinions about the movie.

**** SPOILER WARNING **** Being the father of an autistic child introduced me to a world of children with disabilities, part of which is realistically portrayed at times in this movie. The realism is enhanced by sprinkling the movie with actually disabled children whose demeanor and behavior is achingly familiar to those of us exposed to them. This realism in detail, including portraying many accurate arguments on the part of the protagonists, has the unfortunate (and perhaps intended) purpose of validating a fantasy ending. Also familiar to me, and, I'm sure, the vast legion of parents of the disabled, is the ending itself, in which, after much sturm und drang, the autistic girl finally says "Mommy," hugs her mom, and proceeds to give appropriate responses to every query and situation. Miracle cure! I say this is familiar to me because I saw the same scene countless times. My almost 4-year-old daughter, who never said a word, who I had to engage by getting right in face, blotting out all other distractions, suddenly began speaking in complete sentences! But this happened in countless dreams, and I always woke up before the credits started rolling. My daughter is now 8 and light-years beyond where I thought (and feared) she would ever be, but this came about through years of intensive work by her teachers, social workers, psychologists, and her family. And the work goes on. Parents of disabled children need to fully participate in their child's education and therapy, and not take as scripture every word professionals say. But (with autism especially), the clock is running. If one parent fails to get appropriate therapy for his or her disabled child because of this movie, it will have performed an unintended evil. I suppose the filmmakers could weasel out by saying that the girl portrayed in the film wasn't really autistic, she suffered from some kind of trauma-induced hysteria, which COULD be cured by unconventional means. OK. But they went out of their way to show the girl exhibiting behaviors that anyone familiar with autism would recognize instantly. This is at best dishonest, and at worst exploitation.

I voted mainly for the soundtrack... great songs. But it also was a touching movie. i was kind of little of the time and not to hard to impress but it was a great movie.That is all I had to say but it seems i need 10 lines and I don't think I can think enough to produce another 6 lines so... I voted mainly for the soundtrack... great songs. But it also was a touching movie. i was kind of little of the time and not to hard to impress but it was a great movie.That is all I had to say but it seems i need 10 lines and I don't think I can think enough to produce another 6 lines so...

During the setup of the story I thought that I knew where this one was going. I nearly gave up, disgusted by what I thought was coming. Then Ruth made some comments on specialists and I knew that we were dealing with something special. This is not a movie for those intent on convincing themselves that their self-protectiveness is the ultimate virtue. If you measure life's success by things that are amenable to counting, such as the number of breaths drawn, or by how one can arrive at the point of death having avoided as much pain as possible, stay away. This movie is a celebration of life, not an attempt to glorify the suburban Stepford zombie imitation that most people so zealously seek. Share this movie with philosophical friends. It should provide a springboard to much pleasurable conversation.

What an annoying yuppie movie. Seldom have I disliked a character as much as Kathleen Turner's mom. Tommy Lee Jones was totally wasted- having nothing to work with- except his frustration at a know it all mom. The only saving part of this movie was the young girl who was able to connect without using words.

I haven't been so disappointed since Bush got reelected. I was mainly interested in this movie because Tommy Lee Jones was in it, and I would have to say he did an admirable job with the senseless drivel he was forced to deliver. Kathleen Turner is not one of my favourites, but here I just wanted to reach in and strangle her. The whole thing was a spielbergesque schmaltzfest of embarrassing proportions, and what flabbergasts me is that so many people seem to embrace it on so many levels, as if it actually had something meaningful to say. It is insulting that they should be able to take a condition such as autism (which the child doesn't have but the movie wants you to think she does) and trivialize it and make it the centrepiece of a maudlin, unrealistic dumbed down piece of soap drama. The eponymous house of gravity-defying cards itself could not, by any stretch, have been built by a 6-year-old, or anyone else. The virtual reality simulations depicted were preposterous in 1993; today they are a ludicrous parody. Those are just a couple of the obvious technical failures. I am quite prepared to suspend my notions of plausibility to allow artistic fulfillment, but that only works when it is needed as a vehicle to get the message through. There is no message here, it is just fatuous nonsense of the worst kind: Deliberate emotional manipulation of the sort that Mr. Spielberg is a master of. This doesn't work on me, and I find it dismaying that it does seem to work on so many others, as shown here by how few reviewers were able to see through it. If you like having your intelligence insulted, then by all means, watch this.

"House of Cards" is such a murky film it's a wonder its makers would think it watchable. The plot, which involves a mother's journey to try to reach her young daughter after she has developed autistic-like characteristics, is hard nut to crack. To be fair there is a meek explanation for the child's behavior but it does not hold up. Even stage vet Kathleen Turner and the excellent Tommy Lee Jones can't save this film from the highly symbolic mess it is. It is hard to think of many serious films where one has not come to understand the characters and couldn't care less.