Melody Brooks (Phoebe-Rae Taylor) is a teenager with cerebral palsy. She thinks about tonnes of things and has a lot to say, but she cannot let herself be heard. She cannot walk, she cannot talk, and outside the special class she attends at school, she can’t have normal friendships. Out of My Mind allows us to be inside her head –mostly through a frustratingly uneven narration; more on that later–, allowing us to consider her exactly as what she is: a bright, funny and perceptive girl who, due to the circumstances she has to live through, cannot be seen like that by her peers.
It is a peek through a window few people can have access to, and it results in a story that, while a tad predictable and at times saccharine, has a lot to say about the way the American education system treats disabled people and minorities in general. Do consider, though, that Out of My Mind takes place in 2002, and that a lot of progress has been made in that regard in the last twenty-two years. Thus, the film shouldn’t be viewed as a reflection of the way things work nowadays, but as a sort of time machine that takes us to a more difficult and less understanding time. Clearly, things aren’t perfect in the year 2024 –far from it–, but I’m sure they are better than they were then.
Thankfully, despite having to battle against all sorts of odds, our protagonist is privileged enough to have an understanding and kind family. In fact, it’s thanks to her mum and dad that she manages to be part of a new program at school led by Dr Katherine Post (Courtney Taylor). She believes that disabled people like Melody deserve to participate in a normal school class, learning the same things as her peers, and letting themselves be heard. Thus, she arrives at Mr. Dimming’s (Michael Chernus) class. He seems to be a fun and skilled teacher, but he struggles with Melody. He underestimates her, at least until she gains the ability to speak.
Inspired by Stephen Hawking, she convinces her parents to help her get enough financial aid to be able to afford the technology to gain a new digital voice. Thus, she who had never before been able to communicate like other people now has a way to be heard, to be considered. The scene in which her dad, Chuck (Luke Kirby) hears her for the first time is truly heartbreaking. Kirby does a great job at portraying a normal father who is just trying to do his best in order to give his daughter a better life; he’s a kind and sympathetic man. And while Rosemarie DeWitt as the mum, Diane, is equally good, her character is vastly different. She is a stronger, less gentle person, who’s had to fight many battles in order to give her daughter a decent shot at life.
In any case, it is thanks to Melody’s new, actual voice that she manages to stand out in class. She proves to be highly intelligent and curious, and even manages to be a part of the “Whiz Kids,” a select group of students who have to represent their school at a general knowledge competition. It’s through her resilience and her inability to say “no” that she continually demonstrates to be as capable as other students. She doesn’t want to be seen as different; she doesn’t want to be disruptive or “special”. She wants to have the same experiences as any other kid, and throughout the movie, tries to achieve all of this with the help of her family and Dr Post.
Now, it is hard to craft a film centred on a character who, at least during the first half of the story, is incapable of talking. The way director Amber Sealy solves this is by employing a voice over by Jennifer Aniston, who portrays Melody’s “inner voice”. On paper, this might have been a good idea; the way the script justifies it is by saying Friends is one of Melody’s favourite shows, and that she loves Aniston. That’s fine, but her voice never truly feels like Melody’s, and it is employed so haphazardly, coming and going almost randomly, that one could argue it isn’t even needed. Phoebe-Rae Taylor’s facial expressions and mannerisms are more than enough to communicate what the character wants and needs.
Which leads me to Taylor’s acting. It is, of course, awesome to see an actor who has cerebral palsy in real life portray a character with the same condition in a movie. But apart from that, Taylor gives an excellent performance, portraying Melody as a regular teenager who has to deal with frustrations not inherent to her age. She is clever and gentle and loves her family dearly, but she (understandably) can get frustrated, especially when people don’t see her or hear her. It’s the perfect performance for this character and this movie; I just hope we’ll be able to see her in other projects in the near future.
In the end, Out of My Mind manages to do what it clearly set out to do: tell the story of a girl with cerebral palsy with care, making the viewer empathise with her immediately, seeing the world the way she sees it. The plot itself is rather predictable and enters melodrama territory from time to time, but it does include a couple of highly emotional moments, which should be enough to break the hardest of hearts (I certainly cried a couple of times). Phoebe-Rae Taylor is great as protagonist Melody; Rosemarie DeWitt and Luke Kirby give naturalistic and charismatic performances as her parents, and the movie as a whole feels honest enough. I just hope something as diverse and inclusive as Out of My Mind will soon become the norm, instead of the exception.
Official Trailer:
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