The more that comes up about the true aspects of Autism, the more people start to view others, real or not, as being autistic. I don't tend to apply it to real people, I also don't tend to apply it to characters who were definitely not written as Autistic, if you wish to, go ahead. But be prepared for people who loved the character but hate ND kids to get mad.
I wish more people knew of Little Man Tate, which is such a sweet little gem of a 90's movie that was so original (Yes, there's a bunch of problematic language used, I won't deny). I've always loved it, always identified with Fred's isolation, only we differed by way of needing social acceptance.
Fred is gifted, which isn't a phrase kids get anymore. He can read before most kids, and remember being born. He has the intelligence of a grown adult, but as David Hyde Pierce's character says, "It's not so much what he knows, but what he understands." Fred can read adults better than they can themselves, he perceives dangers that are real but nothing he should be so worried about as a little kid. And while his mother Dede knows how special he is, she longs to give him a normal life. Nothing about the film glorifies intelligence, Fred is celebrated to the detriment of his own psyche. The more he's allowed access to the adult world, the less it seems to support him. He can't trust any adults to simply be there for him, aside from Dede.
Dianne Weist's Jane is Dede's polar opposite, and the two are at constant loggerheads on what's "best" for Fred. In the end, both of them are right, there's a happy medium where Fred can thrive but still foster his abilities and talents. It really ends with "all kids are valid and special in their own unique way".
But you can take all of Fred's attributes and explore it from the logic of Autism. Succinct memories of infancy, persistent inattentiveness and hyperfixation are all evident. Fred picks apart the world around him to make sense of it, mostly by trashing electrical appliances to see how they work. He finds himself immersed in paintings, more from the emotions evoked by the painter than the beauty of the painting itself, he understands Van Gough's loneliness by a white lily in a painting. He worries about becoming an old man by a hormonal imbalance. His nightmares are those of a grown man fearful of his own madness. His wisdom is a burden for him. He's also surrounded by supposedly neurotypical children, and he can't get by in class, he has pathological demand avoidance issues by way of playing the piano piece backwards for his imbecilic teacher and confuses her when he says all the numbers on the board from zero to ten are divisible by two. He's bored in class but he wants friends like the biggest bully in the class. He craves their simplicity but he still expresses himself through intricate art. He even parents Dede by telling her how to run the finances and writing her resume, as she's perpetually struggling to hold down a job, and she disappoints him by selling his piano when she's tight on money.
All of these hallmarks are reported by Autistic adults when discussing their childhoods. There's isolation, or pretending to be someone else to fit in, or relentless bullying for being "different". But it's not like Fred finds solace by being with his peers. When he's finally in his supposed element, he's still ignored and isolated, stuck in perfect geometric spaces completely alone. He can't engage with the activities around him, he chooses to play by himself making an intricate toy from stolen resources, and Jane is responsive to this as it mirrors her lonely childhood. She thinks she can be the mother he should have had all along, but when she fails, Fred is more resentful. She's misunderstood his needs, that Dede is better aware of. Jane celebrates he's not a normal kid, Dede unable to share that, she sees the pressures he'll face in college and needs to support him realistically. The kids that go on Jane's trip make friends with Fred but don't really engage him one on one, aside from Damon, the Mathemagician, who offers Fred a better perspective on the world. I constantly quote the quote by Shaw he uses about unreasonable men. Damon doesn't care if he's hated, he doesn't respect Jane but puts up with her obsession with writing about him and making him a reflection of her brilliant school. Damon didn't get a normal childhood, now he wears a cape and recklessly rides horses and behaves like a combative brat, his demand avoidance much more advanced for how lenient people are towards him and his prodigious talent. He hates Fred presents a threat to his popularity, however. But Fred is so desperate to be friends with Damon because he's found a kindred spirit. His experiences of idolising another and vying for attention is another trait in some autistic kids. They crave resonance with others, they need connections but don't know how to read where someone might refuse it so they express devotion which is never returned. Damon coming to like Fred in the end is very sweet, he's at Fred's birthday party tricking the kids and being a mischief.
Fred doesn't belong in college either, here his isolation is much bigger, all the students treat him like a weirdo outcast but try to cheat off him when they realise he knows more. Eddie befriends him out of guilt for hitting Fred in the head with a globe (I saw the trailer before I saw the movie and the way it was cut seemed to suggest Fred suffers a severe head injury since he's hit with the globe, then later you see him fall to the floor in his chair after he's swinging on it and I thought he was having an epileptic fit), however this is a transactional friendship and Eddie feels like he's done enough giving Fred a fun day out. Once again Fred misreads this and expects Eddie to be there all the time, he's let down by Eddie castigating him for showing up at his place unannounced expecting they're going to play pool. Eddie means well, but Fred only needs to be stung once by people and he will walk away. Rejection sensitivity is a massive problem for autistic kids, it affects them on such a deep level it causes trauma-like responses they struggle to reconcile, where as most neurotypical kids would bounce back from the same rejection or at least have enough friends they can shrug it off.
I don't think you can even dispute Fred is Autistic, (likely with inattentive ADHD). Hyper-intelligence isn't predominant but Autistic kids tend to understand adult concepts well before their peers, they're above average but struggle in an environment from sensory overload and an impending sense of doom other kids just don't experience. You just want to hug Fred and tell him he's perfect the way he is, and he deserves to be happy, and things will be okay. He doesn't have to get a job by thirteen in the tech industry or be a Doogie Howser-type, he can play with trucks and it doesn't make him a dullard like other academics might suggest. He can write his wonderful poems and make his art and not be mocked. You don't see Fred engaged by TV unless it's an adult show. I tended to sit in front of university education shows because there was little to watch on TV and I wasn't on the commercial station. I absorbed a lot of things and said things that impressed people, I responded better to adult humor. I never fit in, I insisted on solo play to avoid sensory overload from bossy kids. I liked being left alone and playing by myself. And I'm still Autistic. It's not disingenuous to depict Fred as just wanting friends to play with. Eventually he gets his wish without sacrificing anything, and when he realises he's not the top kid at Jane's school anymore, he doesn't care. He's happy. It's such a triumphant ending for how much he goes through, it's a big journey for a little kid.
You don't diminish anything by saying Fred's Autistic, it's not a tragedy, it's not something that needs medicating or modifying. This movie is a celebration of autistic kids well before its time. I think people should watch it before they sit down to Rain Man or Music, both of which were made with good intentions and completely failed autistic people.
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