It follows the real case very faithfully at first, then diverts into its own drama on the level of any generic WE channel special for tv movie. I am not going to judge them on that too harshly, after all they never claimed it was the real full story, just used it as a basis for this.
The movie spends a lot of time showing the conflict between the various adults involved while still trying to keep some science going as the movie runs. It does a decent enough balance between drama and realism in such a situation from the scientific point of what happens to language skills if you never learned any. Is it something that is built into us, is it something we learn and if so, is it possible to not learn it?
Drama aside this is about the critical stage theory that was very intriguing to people in mid last century about people's ability to pick up language skills. Basically the theory says that if you miss the stage in your life where you learn language, any language, you can never learn it later. The longer time passes from that point the more impossible it is to acquire it. This is not to be confused with having learned it and then forgotten it due to many years of not using it; that is different. The movie does pretty well to cover that in simple terms and as a viewer you will walk away with actually learning something from this.
The cast and the acting.... not good. Honestly.. it's hit and miss. Michael learner probably delivered the worst performance of his life in this one which is baffling but it is what it is.. It was bad. His character was bad, his acting was bad, everything about that person in the movie was bad and annoying. The rest were ok, not fantastic but ok. Melissa erico did the best out of them all.
About the staging of the movie... low budget, but for a story like that you don't need much. One thing that should be pointed out, black make up around the eyes do not make a creepy/tired child or whatever they were doing. It is not halloween, why would you do that; i dont know. Good thing somebody figured how to wipe it off at some point.
Anyway, if you want a proper rendition of the story of susan wiley, this is not it, but it never claimed to be. It's a decent movie otherwise, as i said there is drama, some feels, some science, nothing overly horrible in any area really.. Just nothing fantastic either. It is a very ok movie. Worth a watch i suppose.
The movie spends a lot of time showing the conflict between the various adults involved while still trying to keep some science going as the movie runs. It does a decent enough balance between drama and realism in such a situation from the scientific point of what happens to language skills if you never learned any. Is it something that is built into us, is it something we learn and if so, is it possible to not learn it?
Drama aside this is about the critical stage theory that was very intriguing to people in mid last century about people's ability to pick up language skills. Basically the theory says that if you miss the stage in your life where you learn language, any language, you can never learn it later. The longer time passes from that point the more impossible it is to acquire it. This is not to be confused with having learned it and then forgotten it due to many years of not using it; that is different. The movie does pretty well to cover that in simple terms and as a viewer you will walk away with actually learning something from this.
The cast and the acting.... not good. Honestly.. it's hit and miss. Michael learner probably delivered the worst performance of his life in this one which is baffling but it is what it is.. It was bad. His character was bad, his acting was bad, everything about that person in the movie was bad and annoying. The rest were ok, not fantastic but ok. Melissa erico did the best out of them all.
About the staging of the movie... low budget, but for a story like that you don't need much. One thing that should be pointed out, black make up around the eyes do not make a creepy/tired child or whatever they were doing. It is not halloween, why would you do that; i dont know. Good thing somebody figured how to wipe it off at some point.
Anyway, if you want a proper rendition of the story of susan wiley, this is not it, but it never claimed to be. It's a decent movie otherwise, as i said there is drama, some feels, some science, nothing overly horrible in any area really.. Just nothing fantastic either. It is a very ok movie. Worth a watch i suppose.