Review: No depth but Autism angle was good research
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 9, 2014
I had a stroke at 28.  I spent a year struggling and I still could not remember names or ordinary things.  Fortunately my brain rebooted and I worked for several years at a non-profit that helped children and adults with all kinds of disabilities using different kinds of technology.  Autism is one of the hardest things for a parent to accept.  They know their child is not like other children, but they keep hoping it is something they will grow out of and the helpless feeling is the hardest feeling for a parent to deal with.  Not knowing what causes autism is frightening.  The director of the center told me she had always heard it said that God never gave you more than you could deal with, but in her experience that was not so.In this story Emily finally wakes up and has the guts to throw out her husband.  She has a two year old and no job, but she has hope.  She answers an ad in the paper for someone to cook and care for a three year old.  She meets Brad who is a rancher from a long line of farmers.  She quickly sees that Trevor is not like other children, but Brad does not want to talk about it.  She moves into his big farm house and cooks, cleans and takes care of their kids:  Pretty much like her old life but better.  She finally gets Brad to realize that his son is autistic and get the therapies that the diagnosis process can provide.  When they are just about to have a personal relationship, the wife he never bothered to get legally separated from or divorce comes home armed with information about his business dealings and threatening to take his son.  Emily has to go and start over.The rest of the storyline is predictable and I had a hard time relating to the Brad.  His immaturity in wanting a hot chick hanging off his arm and his sense of entitlement was not my cup of tea.  While I applaud Emily for realizing how bad her life was and getting her daughter out of the situation, it was irresponsible to throw her herself into a relationship when she needed to focus on getting herself in order to provide support for her daughter.  To have unprotected sex when she was not divorced and he was not divorced and she had no job is the quickest way to become a welfare statistic when you have no job skills.  So plot was weak, but the research on Autism was great and was the best part of the story.  The wife was a cliche and none of the characters had a lot of depth but Emily, even though you wanted to channel Cher and tell her to "Snap out of it!"