Reviewed by Stuart O'Connor
Stars Greg Timmermans, Laura Verlinden, Marijke Pinoy,
Pol Goossen, Titus De Voogdt, Maarten Claeyssens,
Tania Van der Sanden, Jakob Beks, Peter De Graef
Written by Nic Balthazar
Certification UK 15 | Germany 12
Runtime 93 minutes
Directed by Nic Balthazar
Autism. Not the most funfilled subject for a movie, but it has been done quite a few times. The most well-known example, of course, is Barry Levinson's Rain Man, starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise, but there have been others – I Am Sam, Mercury Rising, What's Eating Gilbert Grape?, Little Man Tate, Silence, The Boy Who Could Fly and Forest Gump. Now you can add to that list Ben X.
Teenager Ben (Timmermans) suffers from Asperger's syndrome, which makes it hard for him to communicate with people. So while on the outside he seems to be your average, angsty Emo teen, Ben struggles simply to cope with day-to-day life. What makes it worse is that he's bullied at school, often quite savagely. What helps Ben to cope is his retreat into the world of the online roleplaying game ArchLord. And it's within that game that he has his one and only friend — another player, who goes by the name of Scarlite ((Verlinden). But when Scarlite decides she wants to meet Ben in real life, he knows his life is about to change.
Ben X is an audacious debut from writer/director Balthazar. Said to be based on a true story, it began life as a book, then a play and now it's being remade (agin by Balthazar) for Hollywood. More an examination of bullying in school than of autism, it's an emotional rollercoaster ride that leaves the viewer quite drained.