You’d think a Disney movie about a sweet kid overcoming the difficulties of cerebral palsy would be overly sweet or forcefully positive (Disney-fied, if you will), but Out of My Mind is surprisingly tempered. A smart and sensitive script and great performances across the board work to make the film a balanced and heart-warming portrait of a disabled girl coming of age. It doesn’t give you false hope that everything will be okay, but it’s not grim about the world either. Instead, it gives you a realistic and likable character in Melody (played by Phoebe-Rae Taylor and voiced, amusingly, by Jennifer Aniston), a bright 6th-grader determined to compete in a national trivia quiz with her classmates. Throughout the film, displays a toughness and an agency that not many disabled characters get to enjoy onscreen. There are cliched moments here and there, but Taylor and her co-stars make them feel true and lived in.
Genre: Drama
Actor: Catherine McNally, Courtney Taylor, Emily Mitchell, Gavin MacIver-Wright, Ian Ho, Isaiah Rockcliffe, Janet Porter, Jennifer Aniston, Judith Light, Kate Moyer, Kevin Jubinville, Luke Kirby, Maria Nash, Michael Chernus, Phoebe-Rae Taylor, Rosemarie DeWitt, Sharron Matthews
Director: Amber Sealey
Rating: PG
