Ben X: A different - no, a special - film

What needs to be further remarked? He's handsome.

         It was not hard to detect there was something "different" about the protagonist from other characters. An Asperger's sufferer, Ben was badly bullied by his classmates, sympathized by his parents and teachers, and the viewers, of course. Frankly, he was "different", but not "different" different. He was a typical "different" movie character; hard - not impossible - to come across in real life, but frequently met in a frame. The movie, <Ben X>, was somewhat similar to its main character - another movie featuring a mentally challenged person, another movie leeching off of the audience's sympathy for its gross revenue. That was my first impression.

          Thus, it was difficult to understand the presentation of characters' interviews which seemed to hint at a "shocking incident." The audience knows - I know - a twist, one that is so abused but still necessary to save the otherwise dull plot, is to be presented at the end of the movie. A massacre, a suicide, but why emphasizing its existence? With these questions in mind, the movie progressed. Towards the end, I found out how deadly wrong my expectation was.

          The movie blooms into a brilliant piece in the very end of the running time. Ben plans a revenge with Scarlite to take his revenge on the bullies. Since this was something novel to the movie after a tedious presentation of continuous violence done to Ben, it effectively grasped more audience attention. However, contrary to my hope, shortly after it was revealed that Ben committed suicide on a ferry, which was caught on a video clip. I was bemused - what about the revenge? Was he talking about arousal of guilty conscience within the bullies? Then he resurrected. And THAT WAS PURELY AWESOME. The unexpected twist of faking a suicide practically compensated for everything: Routine characters, dull plots, giving out the twist, etc. In fact, implication of some violent form of outbreak perfectly fooled me, and the ending approached as an even bigger surprise. In terms of best twist, <Ben X> has presented me with the biggest pleasure compared to all other movies.

          Another impressive aspect of the movie is how it successfully illustrated a protagonist of the kind who reached the resolution through his own effort. Because to be precise, he is a below-average character of his kind. While other characters suffering from autism had extraordinary intelligence (e.g. John Nash in <Beautiful Mind>, Raymond Babbitt in <Rain Man>), Ben had none of that. Ben's, a character closer to real-life autism patients, achievement therefore was even more impressive, which added up to the positive aspects of the movie <Ben X>.

             <Ben X> is not a masterpiece; its plot is occasionally choppy, and it does not really bear any valuable virtue that we need to save for ourselves. However, it definitely does not deserve my cursory accusations of it being a lame, dull film. Armed with an ingenious twist and a pleasurable diversion from the movies of its kind, <Ben X> and Ben proved their existence to be more than different - they are special.