The world of autism seems truly mysterious and daunting: A neurological disorder that short-circuits communication in the brain and in severe cases can make a prison of the mind. Imagine how frustrating that darkness, the density of that persistent fog, must be to parents struggling to communicate with autistic children.
Despite its unfortunate title, the new documentary "A Mother's Courage: Talking Back to Autism" is a largely unsentimental journey into these murky waters. It follows Margret, an Icelandic woman with a severely impaired 11-year-old son, as she looks for answers in America and Europe. Temple Grandin, the famed animal-science professor and subject of a recent HBO movie who was diagnosed at age 4, gives extremely illuminating explanations of what the condition affects, and what the world can be like to someone affected. Families raising multiple autistic children describe how they live with the disorder and various experts discuss theories of its causes.
