(2) There are no cell phones... at least none that I can see. The story certainly takes place during the present, given the XM radio, fancy answering machines, and LCD monitor on Donald's desk at work. But there seems to be no cell phones anywhere, not even among the hundreds of college students walking to and fro near the end of the movie.
That might be semi-intentional.
I like it that one of Donald's birds is called Don Juan DeMarco. (Johnny Depp fan!)
Also, towards the beginning of the movie, Donald has a comment about multiples of nine. ("63 is interesting because...") Actually what he says is true of all 9 times tables. -- it's a shortcut to tell whether something's a multiple of nine or three.
(First time I saw Donald's whale costume I thought it was a penguin.)
Movies always do the 555 number thing. It was in Benny and Joon, Are we done yet and some other movie I have seen. When Donald is driving the taxi, you see he pulls onto the road in front of River Front square and then you can clearly see he isn't on that street anymore because you see one of the bridges in the background the train goes on when it goes through town and when he runs into the florest truck, he is near Post St and that is near RiverPark square.
The bridge he throws his phone from is on Trent Ave bridge.
The park they go to, is the same park where Benny and Joon was filmed where Johnny Depp does the Buster Keaton moves.
The restaurant Donald takes Isabelle too was the Davenport Hotel and that was where the actors stayed during the filming of the movie.
Spokane had the movie premiere of this movie on April 14th 2005 because that was where it was filmed and Jerry Newport was there.
The director wasn't fired from this movie, he quit during post production so it caused the movie to be delayed for its release. Jerry had to clear that up on IMDB because of the rumor going around.
The amusement park Donald and Isabelle go to is also in the park. The ferris wheel they ride, you can see that in the background in Benny & Joon in the park scene.
When Isabelle goes on the bus after she and Donald are done going for a walk on Halloween night, they are standing next to the park and the carosol (spelling) you see, you can see little bit of the building in the background in Benny & Joon when Johnny depp starts his buster keaton moves with the hat trick. Then you can see the lights from it reflecting on the river at the end of the scene when he tells Joon he was thrown out of school for it.
Does anyone know why Donald says his costume (the whale) is who he really is?
Gary Cole who plays Donald's boss has a daughter with autism.
The movie was in project for 7 or 8 years before they started to shoot it.
Spokane was picked because it's an isolated city (not really in my opinion) and the people there were friendly and supportive. They didn't want the movie to take place in some big city like LA, Chicago or New York. They also wanted a middle american town that was non discript.
When Josh read the script, he thought maybe he was autistic too.
Movies always do the 555 number thing.
Isn't that an area code?
The park they go to, is the same park where Benny and Joon was filmed where Johnny Depp does the Buster Keaton moves.
Well that makes sense, because in Benny and Joon, Joon's hospital paperwork and her medic. alert card both list her address as Spokane.
Am i the only one who thought this movie was rubbish?
I liked the movie but I consider it separate from the book, since it was fictionalized.
And the book was absolutely excellent.
Thanks Sarahjoke; may read the book then.
*wonders who Josh is*
Josh Hartnett, who played Donald.
(Just a guess)
I got both the book and the DVD on Amazon, no problem.
I saw the movie first, and though it is certainly criticizable I give it a pass because it did have quite a few EXACTLY correct for me and my husband experiences. It is quite fictionalized, and Hollywoodized, but what can you expect?
The book is nearly unrecognizable in comparison to the movie. I highly recommend it. It very much normalizes the whole autism thing, in my opinion, i.e. portrays us as people, not freaks. That's extremely important.
One thing I particularly liked about the book is that the authors talked about their lives rather than talked about how their lives pertained to some particular idea of autism.
There were parts of the story and characters that I really liked and parts that I thought were done a bit overkill...
I really liked the way the core fears and strengths of the characters were portrayed. For instance at the end when she admits what she likes most about him is that he's so dependable, he's always there - his tendency to obsess was in essence a faithful and trustworthy loyalty and something she really needed in her life. That was such a moving part... especially since that's one of the things I adore most about some of my aspie friends. I also really liked how she went after him when he missed their date, figuring he messed up and she was willing to forgive him and move on... and he was understanding about her reaction to the loud noises.
What I wasn't crazy about was the support group scenes, even though they did show that Autism is a spectrum and there are different manifestations of traits in individuals, I thought that everyone in the support group was a one dimensional caricature.
I understand they couldn't delve into everyone's lives, and maybe some of it had to do with the acting...
Silky, I agree with much of what you've said here. Isabelle didn't come across to me as being autistic apart from where she freaked out about the rings dropping at the sideshow, and that could also have been symptomatic of post-traumatic stress disorder.
In fact, I seriously felt like slapping her quite a few times during the movie because of the way she treated Donald and because she kept on being so noisy in a very irritating way. It seemed as if they were always fighting and wouldn't end up happy. I hope in real life the situation is much more positive.
Of all the people in the support group, I would be most like that quiet girl who would call her parents to come and pick her up when it got too much for her (except that I don't have that option but I would go outside if it was too noisy or too emotional).
Interesting. I too feel the need to flee a room when other people are being too emotional. This is why I quickly learned to never go to any kind of support group meetings when they were all female. All-female meetings of that type always end up in the lot of them crying and hugging. ick ick ick ick.
hehe. Amen to that!!! 