Wretches And Jabberers

A fight against the attitude of people with respect to those suffering from learning disability or impaired motor activities, that’s what life is all about for Tracy Thresher, a forty two year old woman and Larry Bissonnette, a fifty two year old man.

Both suffer from learning disabilities and happen to have lived most of their lives in mental institutions. With inability to communicate being their single biggest enemy, their world takes a flip when they figure out how to type after they grow out of their tough childhood phase. The movie is basically a walkthrough for those suffering from any motor or learning disability to overcome any hurdle via sheer willpower. While the movie is fragmented into segments, where both Tracy and Larry explore the mindsets of people all across the globe, it also points out that no matter how different we might consider us from each other, truth is that we are the same beings that face the same challenges day in and night out.

The movie offers a special message as the two keep meeting talented people, who once suffered, or are still suffering from learning disabilities. The high point is when they get to reunite with a long lost friend from the U.S.

Autism finds a perfect treatment in the path-breaking documentary, Wretches & Jabberers. The determination of Tracy Thresher and Larry Bissonnette to change the views of the people in the society, about autism, touched my heart. One striking aspect of this documentary is that it managed to record the perspective of people from Sri Lanka to Findland, over this neurological disorder.

To me, the songs that accompany the spirited shots in the documentary managed to give it a poignant affect. Undoubtedly, Gerardine Wurzburg has spared many thoughts, before taking up autism, as the subject of the film. It’s not only about the two guys in the docudrama, but also about all those, who have been suffering from this menacing disorder.