Martian Child

Go rent this movie. Here's a brief synopsis from the official site (paraphrased):

A recently widowed science fiction writer (John Cusack) adopts a young boy that claims to be from Mars. The new father ignores some sage parenting advice from his sister (Joan Cusack) and gets more than he bargained for when a series of strange occurrences leaves him wondering if the child’s claim may be true. Based on an award-winning short story by sci-fi luminary David Gerrold.

Gerrold is the writer of the classic Star Trek episode "The trouble with tribbles". The short story this movie grew from is based on some experiences with his adopted son.

What really struck me about this movie is how it reminded me in certain places of my own child. Our oldest has an autism diagnosis. He is highly functional, and unless someone told you, you probably would not guess it. He learns a little differently, and at times you have to be creative in how you relate to him. He is certainly imaginative and has a little trouble sometimes understanding the difference between 'real' and 'pretend'.

More than that, though, this movie also reminded me of my own childhood. To a degree I was that little boy in a box. Much more inward than my own son, in fact. I can remember the solitude and difficulty relating to my own peers, and how I would escape into my own imagination and later into books. Had there been more awareness then, I'm pretty sure I would've been diagnosed as being somewhere on the autism spectrum. And probably in a more classical sense than my boy. Educating myself about my son's condition resulted in a lot of 'lightbulb' moments about my own past. A lot of, 'so that's what that was about', kind of things.

There is one very telling scene in the movie, when John Cusack's character is at an event to promote an upcoming book. When he doesn't deliver the expected manuscript to his publisher, giving her something quite different instead, she erupts saying "Why can't you just be what we want you to be?"

I think a lot of people can relate to that. In fact, anyone with a creative bent, or a slightly skewed way of looking at the world will really 'get' this movie, and realize, like I did, that you're not as alone as you think. There's a lot of us 'out of the box' people out there. (Somewhat ironic, I thought, that the 'out of the box' kid, was hiding inside a box.) And even people who are 'normal' (I prefer the more accurate term neurotypical), will find a whole heap of reasons to enjoy this movie.

All my asides aside, this is probably one of the most underrated films out on DVD right now. Do yourself a huge favor and go rent it.