For those who are unfamiliar, it's a film starring Dakota Fanning as Wendy, a young autistic woman obsessed with Star Trek who runs away from the care home where she lives in order to turn in a script she's written for a Trek writing competition. It also stars Alice Eve as Wendy's sister.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4652650/?ref_=nv_sr_1
Just watched it, it's a very sweet film. I thought Wendy was played wonderfully by Dakota Fanning, who gave the her a real sense of determination and a sweet personality as well as doing a good job with the autistic aspect of the character with her various tics and general naiveté. Toni Collette did a good job playing Wendy's carer as well, and the two little girls who played the younger versions of Wendy and her sister in some old home movies were great also.
The bulk of the movie itself was for the most part a fairly generic 'get from point A to point B with various mishaps on the way'-type story, and the Star Trek plot could have been replaced by literally anything else and the film would have been exactly the same (apart from the bit where Patton Oswalt speaks Klingon, that is). That said, Wendy is so endearing and the various encounters she has along the way are designed to tug on your heartstrings in such a way that the film kind of gets away with it.
There's also the ulterior motive of proving to her sister that she can be independent, and getting to meet her baby niece who she is proud of and shows off at every opportunity despite having never met her. I'm not afraid to admit I shed a small tear when she finally meets her at the end of the movie and asks to hold her, even though she had shied away from intimate contact for the whole film prior.
All in all it's not the most original film ever, but it's a sweet story and Dakota Fanning's performance really carries it. It doesn't seem to have done so well on Metacritic, with a lot of people saying Wendy is nothing more than a collection of autistic stereotypes and tics - I disagree with this, and would rate it far higher than the current metascore. Overall I enjoyed it, and would happily watch it again. If I had to give it a rating, I'd probably say 7.5 or 8 out of 10.
Anyone else seen it yet? What did you think of it?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4652650/?ref_=nv_sr_1
Just watched it, it's a very sweet film. I thought Wendy was played wonderfully by Dakota Fanning, who gave the her a real sense of determination and a sweet personality as well as doing a good job with the autistic aspect of the character with her various tics and general naiveté. Toni Collette did a good job playing Wendy's carer as well, and the two little girls who played the younger versions of Wendy and her sister in some old home movies were great also.
The bulk of the movie itself was for the most part a fairly generic 'get from point A to point B with various mishaps on the way'-type story, and the Star Trek plot could have been replaced by literally anything else and the film would have been exactly the same (apart from the bit where Patton Oswalt speaks Klingon, that is). That said, Wendy is so endearing and the various encounters she has along the way are designed to tug on your heartstrings in such a way that the film kind of gets away with it.
There's also the ulterior motive of proving to her sister that she can be independent, and getting to meet her baby niece who she is proud of and shows off at every opportunity despite having never met her. I'm not afraid to admit I shed a small tear when she finally meets her at the end of the movie and asks to hold her, even though she had shied away from intimate contact for the whole film prior.
All in all it's not the most original film ever, but it's a sweet story and Dakota Fanning's performance really carries it. It doesn't seem to have done so well on Metacritic, with a lot of people saying Wendy is nothing more than a collection of autistic stereotypes and tics - I disagree with this, and would rate it far higher than the current metascore. Overall I enjoyed it, and would happily watch it again. If I had to give it a rating, I'd probably say 7.5 or 8 out of 10.
Anyone else seen it yet? What did you think of it?
