Despite great advances in medicine, autism remains largely uncharted territory. Its causes and symptoms are still up for debate and parents are still unsure of how to deal with children who suddenly and inexplicably show signs of severe social disorder.
When writer and former horse trainer Rupert Isaacson’s son Rowan was diagnosed, he and his wife Kristin noticed their child becoming uncontrollable, prone to epic crying jags and a nerve-grating inability to control his emotions.
Unlike most American parents, they decided to shirk a more Western scientific approach and turn their luck over to the Eastern fuzziness of remote Mongolian shaman. Because, hey, it can’t hurt. Or, if some cynicism can be allowed, because there’s nothing like a bit of globetrotting to give your doc a kicky hook.
Trailed by a group of shaky-cam-prone cameramen, the Isaacsons journey from remote tribe to even more remote tribe, up mountains and across picturesque vistas. After complying with one tribes’ oft-odd requirements, including being whipped but not being allowed to scream, Rowan begins making strong improvements. Was it the otherworldly mysticism of the ancient rites? Or is there some other as-yet-determined and far more grounded explanation? Rupert increasingly leans to the former, of course. But the central stunt remains a stunt.
The focus of The Horse Boy is not Rowan—who, to explain the title, just likes horses—but Rupert, who all but dominates the visuals and soundtrack. Director Michel O. Scott grants him the narration and when he’s not gabbing there he’s gabbing to the camera. The film essentially belongs to Rupert, not Scott, and it becomes less about how to treat an autistic child then a self-flattering examination about how he became a kickass dad.
Scott hews close to his subjects, but occasionally sneaks off for some reconnaissance work, hitting up scientists and varied experts—among them Dr. Temple Grandin, a high-functioning autistic who has written fascinating books on how her brain works similarly to that of animals. When this happens, The Horse Boy becomes most useful, even if that means becoming a more traditional talking-heads-and-all expository doc. As it reaches its final minutes, Scott finally connects some of the dots between the stunt mission and the subject of autism, but by then it’s the fabled too-little-too-late. C+
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