Temple Grandin

Wow, Claire Danes is electric and utterly convincing in Mick Jackson’s biopic about the autistic woman who has become prominent in the realms of both animal rights and autism. She’s always been a good actress, but here she is a revelation. Julia Ormond has not always been more than a pretty face, looking like a less-talented Juliette Binoche, but is excellent here as Temple’s mother, while the usually comic Catherine O’Hara is empathetic as her rancher aunt. David Straithairn brings his usual quiet nobility to the role of the high school science teacher who liberates Temple’s native intellect. But this is Claire Dane’s show, and she takes command of it without being showy – she conveys both the outside and the inside of an unusual personality. The film is swift, smart, and funny, as well as deeply moving. And forceful in its message that different does not mean less, when it comes to innate human talents and limitations. As the title of Grandin’s autobiography, Thinking in Pictures, would imply, her story is a natural for visualization, and one of the levels on which this film works so well is as a quasi-documentary on livestock management and humane treatment of animals, not to mention an inspirational story for anyone whose brain is wired differently from the rest of the herd. The DVD won’t be out till August, but the film is still being repeated on HBO – you ought to track it down one way or the other. (2010, HBO.) *8* (MC-84.)