Temple Grandin - A-

On HBO (premiered February 6th). Unrated. Trailer. Schedule.

Temple Grandin is an autistic female cattle scientist that revolutionized the cattle industry with her analysis and writings. The film that bears her name shows her struggles with the disease from childhood through adulthood and the extraordinary burden and reward borne by her mother. Doesn't sound like an A-, but it is. Anchored by a career-best performance from Claire Danes as Grandin and a soulful rendering of her resourceful mother from Julia Ormond, with solid supporting work from David Strathairn. Click below for the best film so far of 2010:

Temple's coming of age occurred in the 1970's, which makes for lots of very interesting societal issues to chew up along with her story. She begins at a normal school then goes to a boarding school, all along the way fighting gender and disability bias and ignorance. Then she moves to college and grad school and starts working at feed lots and developing her theories. Through it all she and her mother fight through each obstacle with grit and grace.

Danes' performance is especially great because of the balance she has to strike to avoid being a caricature and not be too over the top (Robert Downey Jr's discussion of this in Tropic Thunder is on point here). I found the film to be very well done, with interesting progressions and music to complement the great performances.

It is a testament to hard work and a stubbornly loving parent. The scene at the autism conference near the end of the film will be powerful for any parent, and Ormond nails the reaction shots.

A great film about an interesting subject that mostly steers (rock me) clear of sentimentalism.