"The Reason I Jump" is a documentary from 2020, but it took until now, so way more than a year, for this film to reach German movie theaters. I had the chance to see it earlier today. Director is Jerry Rothwell. Cannot say too much about him. Prolific documentary filmmaker in the last 15 years it seems. Here on imdb it says that this runs for minimally over 80 minutes only, but on the cinema website it said ten minutes longer, so a bit over 90. I did not clock the film, so not sure which is correct or if there are several versions. It's not too important either. Fact is, this is not a long movie and it also went by pretty quickly from my perspective. This is based on a book written by a Japanese autist boy. Said book has the very same name like this movie. This was a bit on the interesting side because the German title of both film and book is completely different, basically describing another symptom. Our title is basically "Why I cannot look you in the eye". I mean symptoms are the same, no matter where you are from, but here maybe the simple explanation for this difference is that there are several symptoms and also that perhaps "springen" (the German word for jump) does not sound so fitting in thie context maybe. Besides, we have to keep in mind that the original is in Japanese, so the title there was maybe another as well. I mean there are several aspects taken from the book when making this movie and the closest connection is maybe the inclusion of the guy who translated the book into English and has his very own autism background in his family. Which maybe qualified him more to deal with this translation than other translators. I have not read the book, so I cannot talk in detail about parallels or differences, but what stayed in the mind were the voice-overs, apparently direct quotes from the book and sometimes they were presented to us when we at the same time saw a little Asian autist in the nature. I must say this connection added almost nothing for me. Yes, the writer was Asian, Japanese I think, but that surely felt a bit awkward to me to be honest. If this kid had been the actual author in fact, maybe I would have liked it more, but it was just a random boy they picked for that. Not sure if he is an autist either. It was never about him or his story. Its the one you see on the poster here as well.

Instead, focus was on other autists, most of them relatively young still and we also find out a bit about grown-ups struggling with them. There was this example with the mother who tells us that she did not understand her child before she read the book. Honestly, she was the inclusion I liked the least. I am glad she is not featured more than once and her tear-filled response there did not feel particularly authentic to me. Almost prepared. The story about Joss, a young Brit, I certainly preferred. There seemed more sincerity to that, especially in terms of the people around him. I liked the part when they guessed the color of a machine judging from its sound. Of course, I cannot say if this was scripted or spontaneous, but it was good. Also near the end the color room was pretty special. I'd love to go there myself. At least as much as Joss, who clearly enjoyed it too. Also nice to see the pics from his younger years there, how he visited the exact same place, so it was some kind of déjà vu for him. Then there are a young man and woman, both autists. The two where the guy is a Black fella. It is not entirely obvious if they are a couple, but they seem to get along very well and once there was a reference to speaking about their feelings for each other. They call each other friends and not girlfriend/boyfriend, but then again love also gets its very individual approach in the world of autism. In the end, there was talk about them moving in together, so maybe indeed a couple, but actually it's not too important anyway. They are getting along really well, which is what counts the most and you don't always have to show your romantic involvements to the world.

There were definitely lighter moments in this documentary too. Not super serious everything, which was good. The darker moments include an African girl (no pun intended) it was I think and references and connections between how she acts and how people see her in a way as if she is somehow possessed by the devil. Which is of course complete nonsense from a scientific/medical perspective, but science is not progressed that far in certain areas of the world unfortunately. In addition to that, we get a quick insight or "inlisten" to how autists were perceived back in history. Scary comments of course. So from that perspective there has been some solid improvement when it comes to the final words from this documentary, namely that autists simply would like to fit a little better into the world of non-autists in the future. And how those close to autists (especially parents) hope as well that they will fit in more when they are no longer there to support them. A bit of a contrast to some of the elaborating early on. The very basic autism explanation at the start. Which was about how autists are told by non-autists that they do not fit, with a bit of a message between the lines that questions who these people are to tell others they do not fit. I mean surely you can make a point with some symptoms, especially anger issues that they cannot be healthy in the long run, especially mentally, but as a whole it is a good point that you always need to be unbiased and not treat others in a disrespectful way because they are different.

Unfortunately, there was one area inwhich the documentary came really, really short and basically did not elaborate on at all, maybe because it was not part of the book, but they still could have included a brief mention at least. I mean those hate speech comments against autists from decades ago also were not in the book I am sure, so this should not be an excluding factor. Anyway, the area I am talking about are autists whose condition is not particularly severe on the scale. Those are the vast majority even and sometimes only the trained eye can identify them as autists. Nothing on them in here. Not one bit. This is also where the film titles make an impact. The English title kinda shows that it is more about the serious cases, but the German one is about so many others. Jumping is a grave symptom, but struggling with looking people in the eyes is a really common symptom. There are many others. A bit of a pity this did not find its way into this film, but it is okay. I'd say the outcome is still good enough, but I think it could have been much better as well. I'd probably suggest watching the short Oscar-nominated documentary "Autism Is a World" first and then maybe this one here, but you can in fact also simply go for both in approximately two hours. I cannot agree though with some of the inclusions in this film that acted as if this was some groundbreaking documentary and also not with the somewhat same statement from other reviewers. It is alright, nothing more, nothing less.

The most memorable moments only had a vague connection to the subject at hand. One example would be the childhood fotos from the guy and girl on one occasion. That was really sweet and showed their strong connection, but it did not require an autism background to feel effective. I think I also heard somebody else in the audience go "aaah" when they were shown. Overall, I think this is a film that offers a good overview over basic aspects in autism patients' lives. Helps you understand them a little better, but as it is said on one occasion how one character would totally love to be only five minutes in the head of an autist to see how they see, feel, hear, perceive, this is still a really complicated subject to elaborate on and make a film about as well. I would say this one here was partially successful and deserves to be seen. But once is enough and it surely also does not have to be in a movie theater. At home on television is perectly fine as well. I give "The Reason I Jump" despite its occasional weaknesses a thumbs-up. It's probably a better watch for those who know basically nothing about autism, so they gain a general insight, than for those with autists in their family, circle of friends or at work. They will have learned a lot more through personal contact already than this film could teach them. Sadly, it stays above the surface in its entirety pretty much.

The quotes from the book on which the film is based give the impression that locked within every autistic is a literary genius waiting to get out. But the moment author David Mitchell made an appearance it was difficult not to see the whole thing as a middle class fantasy of what it is like to be autistic.

Indeed, a little research shows that there is scepticism amongst medical professionals over the authenticity of the original text. Perhaps if there had been less style and more content we could have more easily decided for ourselves. As it was I felt more manipulated than informed.

There are a lot of things to untangle in your heart and mind, about this subject.

My conclusion is, that if parents are willing to pay the extra cost and/or volunteers are willing to put the extra effort in to keep these people alive, and keeping them from harming others, then cool.

So many are left in the bush in Africa, because their parents make that choice. This is why parents should be allowed to abort children, at the state level. Pro-Choice. Only parents can make the choice, but others also need to be given the choice to take up that responsibility, if they want it.

Never, should a welfare, taxpayer dollar be spent on these children or any adults, regardless of whether they have autism, dementia, delusions, etc.