A Review of The Film The Black Balloon

Brief overview

The film ‘The Black Balloon’ is a family film released in 2008 by a well director, Elissa down. This review is for all the movie critic out there who want to know my opinion on how the film did. It is also targeted to those who want to know a bit about the film before they watch it or are curious about film, such as the genre and plot. This movie star 5 main Actors, Thomas Mollison (Rhys Wakefield), Charlie Mollison (Luke Ford), Maggie Mollison (Toni Collette), Simon Mollison (Erik Thomson) and Jackie Master (Gemma Ward).

Analysis

The movie starts off with the Mollison family moving into a new town, ready for their new life. Thomas had a lot of responsibility on his back as his dad is enlisted in the army and his mom is pregnant so, he was the only one to take care of his brother at home while his dad is at work and his mom rests. We then get a glimpse of Charlie’s (who’s autistic) behaviour and how Thomas is get very frustrated having to juggle, his social life with his frustrating life at home, having to deal with his brother. About a third of the way through the film, we learn about Thomas’s school life and how everyone at his school tease the students from the school Charlie goes to, just because they were born with a disability. However, they do not know that Thomas’s brother, Charlie goes there. So Thomas tries keep a low profile and not let anyone know that he has an autistic brother. At this point in the film Thomas meets Jackie, one of his class mates from swimming class and really likes her. However, Thomas is worried that Charlie is an embarrassment for him and that Jackie wouldn’t like hem back because of his brother’s behaviour. After Charlies behaviour starts getting worse and crosses the line at Thomas’s birthday part, in front of Jackie, Thomas decides that he has had enough and confronts Charlies about it. This confrontation ends in a chaos between the whole family who is awaiting a new addition to the family.

Fear is one of the themes as Tom has always feared that people around him will always judge him because of his brother being autistic. Family is also a theme in the movie ‘The Black Balloon’. We know this by looking at how Charlie’s family supports him no matter what and is always there when the people around Charlie judge him for having Autism. Brotherhood: Tom who is Charlie’s brother is always supporting Charlie and put up with his behaviour and even though half way through the movie he hates being Charlie’s brother, at the end he ends up loving his brother more than before.

The black balloon is placed under the drama, romance and indie film category by most authentic film review websites such as IMDB. I believe this film fits perfectly in the family genre category and the movie doesn’t only focus on a serious matter/message but also features some comedic, romantic and then some serious scenes as well. This movie fits well under the drama category as the mood of the film goes up and down like a roller coaster, making the film very dramatic, which people love because drama contains a bit of everything. One of the things I really enjoyed was how the director portrayed the message of the film through drama and showed some comedic, romantic and serious scenes. The director could have mad the film sad by just showing the negative effects of autism on the family. This film features family drama, which is when there is major conflict between family members. Directors implement family drama into films to make the audience choose a side. For example, in the black balloon we can see how Thomas was frustrated with Charlies daily behaviour and start fighting with him. In this instance the audience would connect with Thomas and feel bad for him as he has to deal with his brother.

One of the main characters within the film is Thomas. After moving to a new school, he struggles to fit in with his class mates because of his brother’s disability. He feels that he is embarrassed by his brother’s disorderly behaviour and he and his brother are made fun of by some of the students at his school. This leads to Thomas feeling angry and depressed and thinks that he doesn’t belong because everyone makes fun of him and his brother. However, Thomas becomes attracted to a girl named Jackie and that is when the audiences, sees Thomas’s real personality. Thomas is a very caring and funny person when he was accepted by Jackie.

In the some of the character are seen wearing clothes that were wore back in the days, such as beach shirts and thongs. The fashion in the movie dates back to the late 1900’. At the beginning of the movie we can see Thomas and his classmates wearing speedos which wouldn’t be something people would wear today. The background music at the very start and throughout the film consisted old country music which shows how they directors tried to set the movie in a much older time.

Personal opinion

From my opinion, I found this film to be very interesting and it really shows some insight into the lives of people who suffer from autism and what their families deal with. This film really opened my eyes and showed how serious of a problem Autism is and that most of the people in society don’t really understand what families have to go through daily in their lives just to do everyday things like feeding family members with Autism and basically taking care of them. Elissa down has really spread a message to the audience by showing how just everyday thing that bring happiness to us, could mean the world to people who suffer from autism, for example playing games or seeing a plane etc.