A Boy Called Po

The subject 11-yr-old boy's name is Patrick, but he is called Po. His mother just died and his engineer dad is having difficulty juggling single parenthood and his job, and a big design project for a new type of airplane. Po has autism but is very bright, and has a vivid imagination. When he puts his mother's old scarf over his head he can escape to any number of far away exotic worlds.

It is a good story and the movie is very well made. There are some interesting developments, one of which is dad's discovery that Po had been making stock moves in dad's financial portfolio and it was worth many times more than he thought it would be.

My wife and I watched it on Amazon streaming movies. It is the type of movie I'd watch again after 6 to 12 months.

An autistic son makes life difficult and also a joy for a father who lost his wife and found himself struggling to cope with work, his son's education, and the lack of understanding the "normal" world has for this condition.

I really did not expect to enjoy this movie, but indeed I did. Never before have I seen such an authentic portrayal of autism . Julian Feder was truly brilliant . (Freddie Highmore could/should take lessons.) Only one other movie captured my heart by its authenticity and that was "Whale Watcher" and the stellar performance by Keisha Castle-Hughes. These two actors were and are talented beyond their age.

This is a beautiful movie! If you have a child with Autism, if you know a child with Autism, if you know someone who knows someone with Autism this is a must see movie! It gives a clear view into a world that many of us know too little about. The movie was beautifully shot and I can't get over how Julian Feder just nailed it playing a child with Autism. This is a movie that can make a difference in a lot of peoples lives!

Why this movie would win any awards, let alone twelve, is a mystery to me. From the first minutes you get that awful feeling this movie is made for Lifetime. I was actually surprised it wasn't. That typical horrible piano music you get in every scene, it's just cringing to hear, it's a basic signature for lousy Lifetime or Hallmark tv-movies. the story is also typical, we got to learn a life lesson here, but first let's fill the movie with mediocre and unnecessary scenes. You won't hear me saying that some passages aren't worth watching, the ones about autism and the imaginary world they live in were interesting to watch, but for example when the autist disappears after calling a taxi that comes pick him up at the special needs school, driving him far away and that without getting paid and without warning the police, that's the kind of stupid scenes that bring down a story that could have been good. Julian Feder did a decent job playing his character, he's the best actor of this movie. His father played by Christopher Gorham is the opposite, mediocre acting, just the kind you would expect for a tv-movie. It's not because it's a dramatic movie about autism that it's going to be good. There are wonderful movies about autism, but A Boy Called Po isn't one of them.