Ben X Gets Inside Autism's Head

SIFF just opened a week-long showing of the Belgian film Ben X--it runs through March 5. It's a first film from Nic Balthazar, who wrote the novel the movie is based on. The thing about Ben X is that while its hero (played by Greg Timmermans) has Asperger's, it succeeds in stabbing in the guts pretty much anyone who suffered any high school ostracism and bullying. Asperger's just ups the insecurity stakes, because Ben can't tell easily who's a friend and who's not, what's normal and what's not. We spent most of our free time in the library freshman year, but no one tips Ben off to that safe haven.

The Village Voice's Brian Miller nailed the comparison with "the best movie I've seen about teen angst since Donnie Darko"--Ben X comes from a different place because Donnie Darko's schizophrenia is implicit, while Ben explicitly carries the label of Asperger's, and the movie actually strays into Afterschool Special territory as it educates viewers. That said, the scenes of Ben's behavior's affects on his family are both poignant and harrowing, and the movie isn't afraid to let him be a jerky, jumpy outcast while letting us in on his inner life. And as with Donnie, there's a slightly implausible love story.

Director Balthasar's best thought is to set up Ben's immersion in the MMORPG game Archlord, and then bring the game's influence on Ben into the IRL arena. Best of all he does this visually, showing us how Ben has incorporated the game's structure into how he deal with life's uncertainties. His faux documentary style, though, clashes with the ending so strongly that people can't tell if they're supposed to believe it or not. The reaction is so strong we can't help but wonder if Ben X's anti-triumph is to present a scapegoat so compellingly that we have agreed to his death even before we have had a chance to see it happen.