Wonkette Movie Night: Mozart And The Whale
'You can't disappoint me, because whatever you are is exactly what I want.'
Mozart And The Whale is lightly based on the lives of Jerry and Mary Newport and their memoir, Mozart And The Whale: An Asperger’s Love Story. They worked to provide self-help to those with Asperger’s syndrome and autism, as well as counter the thinking that autism meant a person was emotionless and not able to form relationships with others.
In 2001 Jerry penned Your Life Is Not A Label; in it he writes,
I know of nobody who is purely autistic, or purely neurotypical. Even God has some autistic moments, which is why the planets spin.
The movie focuses on their relationship, finding love and friendship while overcoming the challenges that many encounter when trying to find their circle. Finding the ones who get you, who are willing to put up with your bullshit as much as love you for your brilliance, is never easy, whether that be in romance, friendship, or finding allies in the non-comments of a mommy blog. Most of us want some kind of connection, as the character Donald, portrayed by Josh Hartnett says,
People with Asperger’s want contact with other people very much; we’re just pathetically clueless at it, that’s all.
I think I can speak for many of us when I say, same here!
Donald meets Isabelle in a support group for autistic adults and they discover they have a connection. This is where the title makes sense as they agree to go to a Halloween costume party. Anxiety and fear interfere, but understanding allows them to shift to just walking and talking, deepening their friendship. As they work through the changes that happen when another enters your life they decide that it is worth that fight to have this connection.
Mozart And The Whale is available with subscription on Prime. Free with ads on Pluto TV, The Roku Channel and Plex.
Mozart And The Whale stars Josh Hartnett, Radha Mitchell, Gary Cole, Rusty Schwimmer, Sheila Kelley, Erica Leerhsen, Christa Campbell, and John Carroll Lynch. Directed by Petter Næss.
To make requests and see the movie lists and schedules go to WonkMovie.
The animated short is In A Heartbeat by Beth David and Esteban Bravo.
Our next Movie Night selection is WarGames, available for free with ads on Tubi, Pluto TV and the Roku Channel. $2.99 in the usual places.
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Jerry and Mary separated in 1997. In June 1999, they divorced, and Mary returned to Tucson. Mary called Jerry after about a year afterwards, and they remarried eleven months later, on Valentine's Day in 2002. By 2004, they resided in Arizona, and the film Mozart and the Whale, loosely based on their lives, was completed but not yet released. They appeared on 60 Minutes in another segment by Lesley Stahl in 2004. The film Mozart and the Whale was released in 2005.
In 2007, Mary was working as a peer counselor, and Jerry worked as a cab driver and tax preparer. In June 2010, Jerry competed in the Mental Calculation World Cup in Magdeburg, Germany and won the World Cup Trophy for "Most Versatile Calculator".