Paradox Lake (2001)

Przemyslaw Shemie Reut

USA

85 min, color, English

My wife tricked me into seeing this half-documentary half-hallucinogenic trip that masquerades as a profound insight into the world of autistic children. I say 'tricked me' because she did so, knowing full well that I would never agree to sitting through 90 minutes of material that is not exactly inspiring. Having now seen Paradox Drive, I am of a split mind. I did not relish the film, it is one hard to digest picture. The strange experience of working with autistic children prompted questions I liked to ask but did not think about. The film is unsettling and succeeds remarkably well in its curious mixture of cinema verite, computer animation, and scripted scenes. I also enjoyed quite a bit the Q&A with the director and the main lead, who revealed more about the film that I would have guessed.

Matt Wolf (playing himself) leaves New York City to become a counselor at a camp for autistic children in upstate New York. Shot on location during two summers, with only four actors and a cast of real-life counselors (even the actors had undergone training and worked there as well) caring for real autistic children, Paradox Lake gradually uncovers Matt's struggle to understand these kids, whose minds abide in alternate universes and only rarely allow a glimpse of comprehension from this world of ours. There, his patience and forbearance are tested, not least by other counselors who are less forthcoming and much less patient with "their" kids. Unbeknownst to himself, Matt has a dangerous brain tumor that causes seizures and faint spells. Maybe his own precarious condition will enable his brain to communicate with that of Jessica? An interesting film, with many moving scenes and a successfully-driven plot through what is essentially a documentary.

On the other hand, the film fails quite miserably in its most profound attempt. That is, it fails to bestir any more significant emotion than vague curiosity. I am sure the director intended well, but then his film delivers a plan and simple message that reads something like 'Look here! There are these autistic kids, and they are all quite odd. Maybe we should think about that.' Well, this may be fine for Discovery, but not for a feature film. I could think of several, much more interesting, and potentially disturbing, statements the film could have made.

For all its sympathy toward the autistic children, Paradox Lake is your fairly conventional vista of how we, the 'normal' people relate to these 'subnormal' ones. How do we communicate with these minds that are locked in an alternate reality of their own? This is what the film asks and "Love, Caring, and Patience" are the answer. Fine, but not good enough. Why not ask more? How about some of the following: What makes our communication legible? How do we understand each other? What are the emotions and experience that we must share in order to be able to communicate? Wherein lies misunderstanding? Is it not true that our problems in general stem from our failure to grasp the other's frame of reference? Or maybe Nekrasov is right, maybe our problem is that our lives are so predictable that we fail to communicate because we have nothing to say to each other, nothing we don't already know? If so, then being 'abnormal' perhaps only means having nontrivial thoughts? In any case, how do we bridge the worlds of common sense reality and the subjective reality of these children? Do we still need the props of our own literary devices (as in the film) or can we do so without logic? Without explanation? How do the autistic children build a bridge to let us in? Do they even want to? So many questions... I wish the film was a bit more daring.

January 14, 2001