The Reason I Jump
The seemingly impenetrable world of nonspeaking autism becomes significantly more accessible through The Reason I Jump, the latest documentary from director Jerry Rothwell (Sour Grapes).
The insightful film is inspired by the book from Naoki Higashida, who, at the age of 13, conveyed the complexities of his developmental condition in written form to give others a better understanding of how his mind works. His words were then translated from Japanese into English by author David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas) and his wife Keiko Yoshida, whose son is autistic.
Mitchell pops up throughout the film to stress the book’s importance, and dramatized scenes of what appears to be Higashida as a young teen, exploring various landscapes while key selections from the text are read, provide another engaging constant.
The rest of The Reason I Jump, however, focuses on five young nonspeaking autistic people, spread across India, England, Sierra Leone, and the U.S. The beautiful cinematography by Ruben Woodin Dechamps gives the subjects’ lives a cinematic sheen, but Rothwell is careful not to glamorize the difficulties they and their devoted parents face.
Higashida’s reports provide welcome context to help decipher the young peoples’ actions and emotions, and when the two U.S. subjects spell out thoughts and answers to questions by pointing one letter at a time at an alphabet board, the level of intelligence emanating from humans incapable of verbalizing these concepts is revelatory.
Still, even at 80 minutes, the film’s immersion into this milieu is fairly challenging and amplifies the need for teachers and health care workers who feel called to devote their lives to helping nonspeaking autistic people. But in those moments when communication occurs and bridges are built, the chasm feels less intense and hope reigns supreme that the subjects and their peers will increasingly be heard.
Grade: B. Not rated, but with adult themes. Available to rent via fineartstheatre.com and grailmoviehouse.com
(Photo: Kino Lorber)
