Temple Grandin (2010)

Heart-warming and inspiring, this award-winning biopic starring Claire Danes as the real autistic woman who has become a successful livestock handling scientist brought me to tears of joy. Danes' (covered in my post on Me and Orson Welles) masterful performance earned her a SAG award, a Golden Globe, and an Emmy, just to name a few of the accolades heaped on the TV-movie. Also starring the formidable talents of David Strathairn (last blogged for Howl) as her favorite teacher, Catherine O'Hara (after I covered her in Where the Wild Things Are I've loved her in the every one of the 36 episodes of Schitt's Creek I've seen so far) as Grandin's aunt, and Julia Ormond (some of my favorites of her work are Sabrina (1995), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and My Week with Marilyn), Emmy winner for playing Grandin's mother.

I've been fascinated by Ms. Grandin since I first heard her on NPR years ago. I meant to watch the HBO movie when it was released but never got around to it. Then, the other day, after riding my stationary bike while watching the latest episode of Homeland (this season is pretty great so far), I turned the TV to HBO and this movie was on--Claire Danes squared. I was captivated and Jack and I streamed it from the beginning later that night on Amazon Prime. I distinctly remember the real Grandin's appearance at one of the award shows, making a number of unprompted and overly long but warmly received speeches as the movie won.

Director Mick Jackson (most recently in these pages for Denial) works from a screenplay by Christopher Monger (directed/wrote The Englishman Who Went up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain (1995) and more) and Merritt Johnson (eight episodes of In Treatment which I didn't see), based on two books by Grandin, Emergence and Thinking in Pictures (the latter book co-written by Margaret Scariano).

Composer Alex Wurman (scored Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (2001); Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002); Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004); Run, Fatboy, Run (2007); Four Christmases; The Switch; and nine episodes of The Newsroom, to name a few) also won an Emmy for the music on this project. I liked the music but it's not available online.

In case you need further encouragement, this is rated 100% by critics and 95 by audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. 'Nuff said.