Question
Movie name Molly
Focus on these questions:
– What is the disorder? Identify the disorder
– Was the character born with this order? What caused the disorder? Analyze the family History
– Where is the movie taking place? Are their resources? How does the current environment effect the disorder?
– Does culture or economics’ effect the disorder?
– Does the charter have multiple disorders?
– What are the characteristics of the disorder? Are they physical, emotional? Can they be seen?
– What is the relationship of the character with the disorder and the other characters?
-What was the characters childhood Like ? Adolescent ? Adult ?
– What strategies and Methods are used by the character with the disorder and or other characters in the movie?
Answer
Introduction
The fictional movie, Molly, directed by John Duigan, describes a story about a woman who is mentally challenged and suffers from autisms since as a young child. Molly, a twenty-eight-year-old young woman, is left under her brother’s care after the closure of the mentally ill institution. Molly suffers under the care of her brother Buck who views Molly as a total stranger to him as they were separated at an early age. The movie takes place in an American town. However, the character Molly is played by Elizabeth Shue, whereas the character Buck is played by Aaron Eckhart. At the beginning of the movie, Molly has an autism spectrum disorder, which is characterized by diminished social skills, speech challenges, repetitive behavior, and nonverbal communication. Consequently, Bucks does not know how to cope with his autistic sister due to personal challenges experienced at the time. Therefore, Buck is informed of a risky experimental treatment that could be a possible cure to Molly’s autism; he immediately authorizes Molly’s surgery, which bears positive results. Hence, the autism portrayal by Elizabeth Shue is engaging and more realistic resulting in a lovable as well as an interesting storyline.
Executive Summary
As the movie begins, the autistic nature of Molly starts from her childhood, her chronological growth from a child to a woman is well portrayed. According to the movie, Molly seems to have been born with the disease as she grows in an institution from an early age. At an early age, Molly grows as a happy child as the movie unfolds with memories of funny and sweet Molly as a child. Later, Molly’s parents died from a car accident, which resulted in the institutionalization of Molly as the brother was too young to take care of her immediately after the demise of both parents. Molly, as an adult perceived the world through her innocent eyes despite spending all her teenage and part of her adult life in an institution. Buck describes her as a free-spirited person, spontaneous, forthright, and an honest person, full of joy because he was unaware of her surroundings due to a mental condition. Indeed, Molly’s character explores the innocence of a young woman with a prevailing mental condition.
Autism is characterized by low social interactions, repeated movements, and actions, unusual expressions, prolonged and intense emotional reactions caused by anxiety, especially during a routine change, overreactions to the sense of touch, smell, sight, taste, and hearing. Also, speech and nonverbal communication challenges are among the characteristics of autism. Molly expresses emotional reactions as described by Buck, as he says that the sister is always happy as she is unaware of her surroundings and undresses in public without arrest. Molly overreacts to the sense of hearing as portrayed in the baseball game as she could pinpoint conversations from a far distance. Due to autism, Molly was unable to acquire a job as she could not care for herself. Nonetheless, Buck is unprepared to handle Molly’s unique needs, which shows the severity of Molly’s condition, which required specific care even though Buck never bothered to try. Ultimately, Molly is selected for the medical experiment that cures her of her autism and hence develops a higher IQ. Indeed, Molly portrays a highly emotional and physical autistic characteristic that prevents her from having a healthy life.
Problem analysis
The protagonist has lived in an institution for 15 years since her parents died. In the institution, she has a good relationship with one of the staff, Sam. Notably, the defunding by the government forces the institution to close down. Consequently, Molly has to live with her brother at least for some time. Notably, Molly and her brother have not been close before, and this new responsibility requires Buck to make significant adjustments. In the institution, Molly does not have a lot of engaging interactions, and hence it only worsens her condition. When she leaves the nursing home, she cannot even perform the necessary tasks. She is desperately needy and clumsy. However, living with her brother gives her a few opportunities. She gets a chance to get into a new facility where she qualifies for an experimental surgery that helps her achieve a state of normalcy briefly. Besides, the operation helps increases her intelligence, and now she can see the world differently.
Molly is innocent and childlike and does not understand the type of world she lives. She takes her clothes off in her brother’s office during a meeting when she got hot. This is an offensive action to Buck, and it costs him his job, but clearly, she does not understand the implications. Molly and her brother have a good relationship and living with her changes his view of the world. Also, Molly shows signs of growing intelligence after her surgery. As a result, she finds addiction to watching soap operas and becomes much interested in sex. She suggestively throws herself to Sam after watching the movies, and they enter into a relationship. Notably, she has difficulties expressing herself. She cannot seem to appreciate life because she is ashamed of herself. Although she is often conscious of her worthiness, she is quite aware of what goes around. Notably, she gets well with Sam, who points out that he has always cared for her even with her condition. Notably, as she comes from her autistic state, she learns of a different world. A world that normal people hide their feelings to an extent they pull away from everyone else and the beautiful world.
Culture plays a significant role in the diagnosis, etiology, and treatment of autism. Notably, the condition exists in the world, even in societies that do not know about it. Also, culture influences the conditions and the recognition of the disorder’s implication. Besides, the difference in cultures globally influences the perceptions of the symptoms. As a result, there are no documented characteristics of defining the symptoms of the disease. Therefore, different cultures have different definitions of identifying the behaviors of people with autism. Notably, due to the dissimilar definitions of symptoms, different cultures may help in defining more effective measures of dealing with the disease. Also, it could aid in defining standard care and interventions across different cultures. Indeed, culture is responsible for a better understanding of the disorder as well as providing services, education, and improved treatments for the disease.
Strategies
One of the methods used in the movie is behaviorism. The method involves observing characters’ behavior while ignoring their mental and psychological processes hence simplifying human behavior. Additionally, behaviorism involves rewarding good behavior, hence encouraging the learner to learn good behaviors. Also, the theory does not associate abnormal behavior with the functionality of the brain but preferably on prior conditioning. Therefore, Molly’s behavior is not associated with her disorder but learned habits. Thus, Buck observes her as hyperemotional, desperately needy, and clumsy. Also, she learns about world behaviors from reading fictional novels and watching soap operas and learns things but does not know how to differentiate how to act in the real world. Consequently, she wants to marry her brother but does not understand why she cannot. Also, Buck and Sam are good to Molly, and they create a safe and secure place for her. Therefore, she can express herself to them and relate with them despite her disorder.
Conclusion
In the film, Molly spends most of her life in an autistic institution, which denies her life experiences. Consequently, autism is associated with various cultural drawbacks, such as lack of ability to develop a relationship with people. Institutions lack proper methods to teach autistic children with real-life experiences and skills. However, after her recovery, she gets life experiences from watching soap opera films and reading novels, which provides her with insufficient fictional life experiences. Additionally, she develops more abilities such as high IQ and a higher sense of hearing as compared to a normal human being. She can take care of herself on the contrary to previous disabilities. Hence, the film portrays the role of society in supporting persons with disabilities and their involvement through providing chronological and psychological growth.