Movie: Please Stand By
Blurb: Wendy sees things differently: she's fiercely independent, with a brilliant mind and a mischievous sense of hilarity. Wendy also has autism. To her, people are an indecipherable code and the world's a confusing place. Inspired by her no-nonsense caregiver, Wendy comes of age and escapes from her care home on the road trip of a lifetime to deliver her 500-page script to a writing competition.
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I've been so incredibly impressed by Dakota Fanning's performance as Sara Howard in the series "The Alienist" that I decided to watch the film Please Stand By in which she plays a young woman with Aspergers who defies her own fears and issues to travel to Los Angeles to try to deliver a Star Trek screenplay that she has written. It sounds like an odd story but it's such a gorgeous road movie / coming of ages movie / journey of self discovery movie. I loved it.
Wendy, played by Dakota Fanning, lives in a group home with a number of other people on the autism spectrum.
Scottie (Toni Collette) is her therapist who runs the group home.
Scottie has taught Wendy how to make eye contact, read the social cues from peoples’ faces, shower daily ...
Click to viewShe has taught her to smile when she's at work - she ices cinnamon buns at the Cinnabon.
Wendy is obsessed with Star Trek... and in particular identifies with Mr. Spock. When Paramount Pictures runs a writing contest, Wendy works hard on a Star Trek script which runs to hundreds of pages - much of it focuses on how Spock, in an effort to be more human, is attempting to find a scientific equation for humour. There are clear parallels between Wendy and Spock.
"Please Stand By" is a phrase that Scottie has taught her to repeat to herself during moments of high stress in order to calm herself.
One of the triggers in her life is her older sister, Audrey (Alice Eve) who has recently had a baby with her husband, but is afraid that Wendy may hurt her, so has sent her to live in the group home. This is distressing for Wendy who would prefer to live with Audrey and wants to be close to her young niece.
In an attempt to prove to her sister that she can be independent and win the competition, Wendy travels to LA on her own to deliver the script in person, despite being terrified of the world and anything that doesn't fall within her standard patterns of understanding and behaviour.
Her buddy for part of the journey is little Pete the Chihuahua who is a classic
I am not a fan of chihuahua's but honestly, Pete's performance is heartfelt and sincere, he won me over almost from the start
Much of the trip is traumatic for poor Wendy as she encounters not just adversity and strangeness, she sometimes encounters genuine cruelty and meanness.
Nonetheless, there the movie is a hopeful one... and Wendy's screenplay provides her with encouragement to persist in the face of adversity.
"There is only one logical direction to go - forward."
"The unknown is here for us to conquer, not to fear."
I loved it when the policeman trying to bring Wendy in reaches out to her using Klingon to win her trust
"A warrior does not let a friend face danger alone."
The whole scene is here:
Dakota Fanning transforms herself and is so likeable and lovable despite a number of meltdowns .. and her heartbreaking inability to be close to others despite actually being able to form connections with people. I particularly liked the fact that Scottie's troubled son Sam was trying to reach out to her and actually read her screenplay.
Trailer here:
Behind the scenes clips here:
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