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Wonderful character development!

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

"Mozart and the Whale" is a weak, saccharine love story revolving around Jerry, an autistic maths genius, and Mary, a talented musician with Asperger syndrome. The film was written by Ronald Bass, writer of "Rain Man", another film supposedly about mental illness. His "Mozart and the Whale" script was once set to be directed by Steven Spielberg, who ditched it in favour of a couple of even more saccharine scripts.The film somehow manages to both trivialise mental illness and glorify it, our inordinately photogenic heroes magically imbued with savant-like super powers specifically because of their illness.The film is "about" the troubles those with "autism" have when socialising, but its plot is too sugarcoated and negates all insight. The film is too quirky, too heavy-handed, is constantly telling instead of showing, lacks subtlety, and is approaching its material from two almost contradictory positions, wanting to at once be a fairy-tale romance and a gritty, grungy drama.Amongst the cast, a much hated Josh Hartnett stands out. He's been criticised, but it's a poor director and poor writing which makes the cast look bad. The film is highly regarded by people with Aspergers and those who are married to or know people with autism (it's a comforting fantasy, despite the film implying that our couple won't last). On IMDb, the film seems to disproportionally appeal to women. In real life, the divorce/virginity rates of those with autism/Aspergers are well above national averages. I watched this film with a young woman with Aspergers. She doesn't behave like anyone in this film. When it was over I asked her what she thought of it. She described it negatively. Which films portray Aspergers correctly? According to her: "The 40 Year Old Virgin", "Snow Cake" and "Punch Drunk Love". Two of those films aren't officially about Aspergers. 5/10 – Worth one viewing.

They say that when you've met one person with autism, you've met just one person with autism.Most movies or television shows which contain a character with autism tend to overload that character with the combined traits that would be found in ten to twenty people with autism. Not so in Mozart and the Whale.The characters are very well written, developed and acted. As a teacher who works with individuals with Aspergers/Autsim I was pleasantly surprised by the realistic approach to the characters in the movie, including those in the support group.Additionally the attempts by the lead characters at socializing with neuro-typicals were also portrayed very accurately.The fact the movie is also very entertaining and a joy to watch is a bonus.

I warily waded into this one, skeptical that two young H'wood hotties would have the acting chops to make me believe they had Asperger's. The perky alt-pop song over the clichéd opening aerial "city" shots was a bad omen---"another film targeted for date-flickers who don't want real-life to intrude on a cute, predictable love story." Ten minutes later, I'm actually laughing at the lameness of the portrayals. Josh Hartnett seems like a nice-enough bloke, but he's in way over his head here; he seems more shy than afflicted. Radha Mitchell apparently has one note to play in all her roles---nervous, twitchy, disturbed, chain-smoking, about to blow a fuse. See Woody Allen's "Melinda and Melinda" and you'll see the same character, only now she supposedly has Asperger's. Although you wouldn't know that by watching her---she talks and acts pretty normal. Another young, attractive, red-haired actress in their "group" seems like a student in a high school drama/improv exercise who's been told that her character has autism and is given a few seconds to come up with something suitably "autistic" to say. When Radha Mitchell's character gleefully exclaimed, "We're autistic!" I'd had enough. I know people with autism, including my nephew. This woefully unrealistic film is to autism what the equally laughable "Away from Her" (2007) was to Alzheimer's...

This film is about a young man and a young woman, who have Asperger's Syndrome, falling in love with each other.This film is very impressive. Josh Hartnett portrays the main character, Donald, who has poor social skills and social relatedness. His lack of eye contact, shyness, inability to comprehend facial expressions and body language are all portrayed well in the movie. It shows that Josh Hartnett can seriously act. The film is bright, warm and sweet. As for the visuals, there is always abundant colours in the film, and adequate lighting is ensured throughout the movie. I really like this point because it adds a positive feel to the film. I am glad to have watched this film, and even more glad that it can help to raise awareness of Asperger's syndrome.