The Character Sketch of the Movie the Black Balloon - Assignment Example

 The Character Sketch of the Movie the Black Balloon The Black Balloon (2008) is a movie about parenting and living with an autistic child. The movie is written and directed by Elissa Down. The focus of the movie is not strictly about parenting. But it does highlight the difficulties that parents face while raising a child with birth defects. The parents have two children; Thomas and Charlie. Charlie is autistic and naturally gets more attention from his parents. Thomas feels isolated and sometimes even neglected by his mother. The protagonist Thomas Mollison, played by Rhys Wakefield, is shown to be torn between two paths in his life. One path is his regular teenage life, where he has a crush on a girl. The other path is full of responsibilities; he has to take care of his autistic brother who is a big baby. He faces the ultimate sibling conflict. The family moves to a new place, and the time is the 1990s. Thomas is shown to be anxious about making new friends and all he wants is to fit in. The plot is so refined that it shows the power that went behind the writing. The parents have a hard decision to make where they want to give equal attention and love to each of their children. The mother is inclined to take more care of the one who lacks understanding, social skills and cognitive ability than the other normal people. Sometimes the normal children are supposed to take on more responsibilities and acquire leadership and caring skills. If it were a normal family Thomas would have lesser responsibilities. But his parents cannot always be around Charlie, especially when he goes to school, and during play time, those activities are accompanied with people of the same age. Summary   Thomas is a 15-year-old normal teenager. His family moves to a new home. He is going through a phase feeling like he needs to fit in with his new friends at the school. He struggles with fitting in because his family is unusual; he has an autistic brother who gets the attention of the parents all the time. This makes Thomas feel neglected. However, Thomas loves his brother Charlie and takes very good care of him. Charlie enjoys playing video games, wearing a monkey costume and receiving stars for good behavior. Maggie, their mother, is heavily pregnant, and her doctors have advised her to take rest. Eventually, Thomas has to be in charge of Charlie. This is not an easy task as he has to chase Charlie down when he shoots out of the house. Charlie enters into a neighbor’s house and tries to use the toilet when Jackie is taking a shower there. It makes Thomas feel embarrassed. Jackie and Thomas go to the same school, and she shows interest in him when she goes to his house to return the monkey cap that Charlie leaves at her house. Thomas locks Charlie up in his bedroom so he won't be interfered while talking to Jackie. Charlie makes a mess in the bedroom, and this upsets Maggie. Mother and son have an argument. Maggie tells Thomas that Charlie is their responsibility, and he will always be living with his parents. Maggie's husband is concerned about her health so he suggests that Maggie should remain in the hospital for the rest of her pregnancy days. Thomas becomes fully in charge of Charlie and starts to bond with his brother even more. The movie then shows ups and downs going in the family. Charlie occasionally misbehaves and one time he creates a scene at the departmental store. He gets a spanking from his father in front of everyone. One night Thomas invites Jackie to have a roast dinner with his family to celebrate his 16th birthday. Thomas becomes extremely embarrassed and furious as Charlie starts to masturbate in front of Jackie that makes her extremely uncomfortable. Thomas breaks Charlie's videogame in fury, and both brothers start to fight, their father intervenes. Thomas feels guilty and the next morning he joins his brother in the form of reunion. In the end, the whole family attends a school musical production where both brothers perform on the stage. Parenting issues explored in the movie  The main theme of the movie was how the parents deal with an autistic child. Raising a child is enough responsibility but when you have an autistic child and a normal one who needs your equal attention then it becomes very difficult for parents to be just in their loving care. In the movie the mother is heavily pregnant which is even a tougher test because she has abnormal hormone levels and she can get frustrated very easily. The movie shows different situations where Maggie and her husband have to go through a lot of pain and difficulties to take Charlie. Charlie's father is usually at work and Mandy is heavily pregnant, she cannot take full responsibility of Charlie. Charlie's brother Thomas has to take care of his mother's place. Delegating responsibility to the other son is always an issue. But in this case the parents have no choice. When Jackie arrives at Thomas's home to give her the monkey Back Thomas locked Charlie up in his bedroom. This makes Maggie mad she knows that it's not safe for Charlie to be alone in a room. Her mother loses her temper and despite being pregnant she has to clean up when Charlie makes a mess on the carpet. Such situations are very real for parents with autistic children in the test their patients in every possible way. The parents are raising a child with disability and it is never easy to do so. Situations and interactions between parents and the youth involved  The majority of the scenes in the movie are filmed on the brothers. From there several interactions between the parents and their children it appears that Maggie and her husband are trying their level best to keep the spirits high of their children as they move to a new place. Despite being pregnant, Maggie shows her full involvement. Her husband is a traditional father but he also involved and provides nurtures and guides his sons. He's also a loving husband who takes care of his wife. Interaction between the autistic child Charlie and his mother explains how a mother understands her child. They both use sign language and the way she effectively communicates with Charlie, no one else in the family does that. She plays according to Charlie's needs. She never scolds Charlie or gets mad at him because she knows that his cognitive abilities are less than average. He has genetic defects and there is no cure for him accept to give him love and care and hope for minor improvements. When he drops something or makes a mess she is always there to pick up the pieces but without getting angry at Charlie. On good behavior she rewards Charlie with a golden star for his better emotional regulation. This might have been established by their child specialist to embed punishment and reward system in Charlie's mind to make him act in certain ways. Maggie is the primary care parent and she has a tall order to fulfill. Maggie is also teaching Thomas how to take care of Charlie when she's not around. Sometimes she even gets mad when Thomas behaves like a teenager and not a responsible adult. When he shuts Charlie up in the bedroom so that he could talk with Jackie, Maggie gets very angry. She knows the dangers as Charlie can hurt himself. This kind of scolding and expression of anger is necessary to let the child know that such behaviors are acceptable. The parents have to be very strict to let the child know not to play with fire. There are lessons that the children should learn without being hurt and for that they need their parent’s advice and loving guidance. The father in the family is fully involved with everything. He's very protective of his family because one time the staff from the social services department shows at their door because someone files a complaint against Charlie. The father gets mad at the neighbor who probably called the department in the first place. The movie also shows the difference between mothers and fathers. The mother almost never gets mad at Charlie. But when the dad, Thomas and Charlie are at the departmental store buying groceries, Charlie starts to cry and scream. Dad loses his patience and drags him out of the store spanking him. Even though he gets angry he is always there when needed. At the dinner table when Jackie is celebrating Thomas's birthday the brothers start to fight and it is the dad who intervenes and separates them. Characters managing the stressors of parenting  The parents took comfort in each other and managed the stresses of parenting. They also had a responsible son, Thomas, who took care of his autistic brother. There are times when the parents break down but eventually did get up and assume the responsibility they had before. For instance once Maggie loses her temper on Thomas for locking up his brother in the bedroom. In another scene the dad loses his temper in the departmental store and beats Charlie. The things the characters did well given the situation The overall development and grooming of Charlie is something that the parents handled very well. For an autistic child, Charlie, he is growing up in good care. Moreover when it came to the performance of children with birth defects on the stage the whole family was present to support Charlie. The things they could have improved upon It seems that they did not have a well executed plan for the third pregnancy of their daughter. Putting Thomas in charge of Charlie is not a well-executed plan. Charlie has his own life and he is already giving a lot of attention and care to his brother. Taking up full-time responsibility of his brother is unjust for Thomas. They should have hired outside help of a professional to take care of Charlie. This help could have managed for a few days till Maggie was in labor. Reality of the problems The problems that the parents faced in the movie are very real. Any couple can have a child with birth defects. And not everyone has the means to hire professionals that can take care of such a child all the time. Moreover unplanned pregnancies do happen in the real world. This is why parenting alone sometimes doesn't suffice. The family has to focus on one individual during certain phases. It demands sacrifices. Reality of the reactions and solutions   The reaction of solutions to the problem were also very real. For instance it is not always rainbows and butterflies when raising kids. Sometimes there are mistakes, misbehaviors and sometimes parents lose their temper. Information for “real” parents I would like to share a few thoughts with parents who might be facing similar challenges as shown in the movie. Family Dynamics demand that the members needs to communicate with each other so that every person has a role to contribute towards the family. This is important because if this communication is missing then a person or persons will have to contribute more than their due responsibility and this creates an unbalance in the family. In the long term this injustice ensues and then spews out in the form of anger. I would highly recommend this movie to parents who might be facing the same situation. There are so many lessons they can learn from parenting perspective. When parents watch this movie they would certainly pick up lessons. They would also comment on certain areas that the characters in the movie could improve. I would leave it up to the parents who might be watching this movie because they have to adjust the scenario to their respective situation.          Summary of the project I learned that people like us, who are not parents, do not really empathize with them. This movie gives a first-hand experience of what it feels like to be parenting a child with birth defects. It made me question the values and the role of the father and the family. I wonder what the future will bring in terms of father's role as a contributor towards the family. To me, the father was very supportive and probably gave all he could towards the family but I also know that there might be people who would think that the father could have contributed more and should be home more due to Charlie's condition. But overall, the movie was a powerful learning experience. Read More