Top 'Special Needs' Flicks
by Hello-Beautiful | created - 11 Feb 2013 | updated - 04 Sep 2013 | PublicMovies focused on the challenges & perseverance found in having Special needs, being developmentally challenged, victims of trauma, tourette’s syndrome, being deaf etc.
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1. Forrest Gump (1994)
PG-13 | 142 min | Drama, Romance
The history of the United States from the 1950s to the '70s unfolds from the perspective of an Alabama man with an IQ of 75, who yearns to be reunited with his childhood sweetheart.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Sally Field
Votes: 2,256,457 | Gross: $330.25M
A slightly mentally challenged man has an extraordinary life & long awaited happy ending.
2. What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)
PG-13 | 118 min | Drama
A young man in a small Midwestern town struggles to care for his mentally-disabled younger brother and morbidly obese mother while attempting to pursue his own happiness.
Director: Lasse Hallström | Stars: Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Juliette Lewis, Mary Steenburgen
Votes: 254,039 | Gross: $9.17M
Gilbert has to care for his brother Arnie whom has special needs and his chronically obese mother, which gets in the way when he seeks to have a love life.
3. I Am Sam (2001)
PG-13 | 132 min | Drama
An intellectually disabled man fights for custody of his 7-year-old daughter and in the process teaches his cold-hearted lawyer the value of love and family.
Director: Jessie Nelson | Stars: Sean Penn, Michelle Pfeiffer, Dakota Fanning, Dianne Wiest
Votes: 155,298 | Gross: $40.31M
A mentally handicapped man fights for the custody of his 7-year-old daughter with the help of a reluctant pro bono lawyer.
4. Speak (2004)
PG-13 | 89 min | Drama
After a blurred trauma over the summer, Melinda enters high school a selective mute. Struggling with school, friends, and family, she tells the dark tale of her experiences, and why she has chosen not to speak.
Director: Jessica Sharzer | Stars: Kristen Stewart, Elizabeth Perkins, Richard Hagerman, Allison Siko
Votes: 29,435
After a horrible, but blurred trauma over the summer, Melinda enters high school as a selective mute.
5. Rain Man (1988)
R | 133 min | Drama
After a selfish L.A. yuppie learns his estranged father left a fortune to an autistic-savant brother in Ohio that he didn't know existed, he absconds with his brother and sets out across the country, hoping to gain a larger inheritance.
Director: Barry Levinson | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, Valeria Golino, Gerald R. Molen
Votes: 546,504 | Gross: $178.80M
A touching drama about an autistic savant whose late father has left him $3 million in a trust & a materialistic younger brother.
6. Radio (2003)
PG | 109 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
The story of a high school coach and the developmentally challenged man who he took under his wing.
Director: Michael Tollin | Stars: Cuba Gooding Jr., Ed Harris, Debra Winger, S. Epatha Merkerson
Votes: 43,990 | Gross: $52.33M
The story of a high school coach and the developmentally challenged man whom he took under his wing.
7. Of Mice and Men (1992)
PG-13 | 115 min | Drama, Western
A nomadic farm worker looks after his dimwitted, gentle-giant friend during the Great Depression.
Director: Gary Sinise | Stars: John Malkovich, Gary Sinise, Ray Walston, Casey Siemaszko
Votes: 47,278 | Gross: $5.10M
Lenny & George find themselves unemployed in Depression-era California, unable to keep jobs because of Lennie’s developmental disability that makes him somewhat childlike.
8. Mr. Holland's Opus (1995)
PG | 143 min | Drama, Music
A frustrated composer finds fulfillment as a high school music teacher.
Director: Stephen Herek | Stars: Richard Dreyfuss, Glenne Headly, Jay Thomas, Olympia Dukakis
Votes: 41,702 | Gross: $82.57M
A frustrated composer finds fulfillment as a high school music teacher after he learns his only son is deaf.
9. Adam (I) (2009)
PG-13 | 99 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Adam, a lonely man with Asperger's Syndrome, develops a relationship with his upstairs neighbor, Beth.
Director: Max Mayer | Stars: Hugh Dancy, Rose Byrne, Peter Gallagher, Amy Irving
Votes: 35,771 | Gross: $2.28M
Adam is not a typical romantic comedy. The death of his father leaves Adam living alone in the apartment they shared. He struggles with trying to express his attraction to his pretty downstairs neighbor, but faces challenges...as he has Asperger’s Syndrome.
10. Phoebe in Wonderland (2008)
PG-13 | 96 min | Drama
Confounded by her clashes with the seemingly rule-obsessed world, a troubled young girl seeks enlightenment from her unconventional drama teacher.
Director: Daniel Barnz | Stars: Elle Fanning, Patricia Clarkson, Felicity Huffman, Bill Pullman
Votes: 8,078 | Gross: $0.07M
Phoebe clashes with the seemingly rule-obsessed world, which is made worse by her early onset of tourette’s syndrome
11. The Sessions (2012)
R | 95 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
A man in an iron lung who wishes to lose his virginity contacts a professional sex surrogate with the help of his therapist and priest.
Director: Ben Lewin | Stars: John Hawkes, Helen Hunt, William H. Macy, Moon Bloodgood
Votes: 43,979 | Gross: $6.00M
Paralyzed & in an iron lung, Mark O'Brien hires a sex therapist & seeks the counsel of his unorthodox priest
12. 50/50 (2011)
R | 100 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Inspired by a true story, a comedy centered on a 27-year-old guy who learns of his cancer diagnosis and his subsequent struggle to beat the disease.
Director: Jonathan Levine | Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard
Votes: 342,884 | Gross: $35.01M
The ups & downs of the life of a 20-something with a rare form of cancer
13. Proof (2005)
PG-13 | 100 min | Drama, Mystery
The daughter of a brilliant but mentally disturbed mathematician, recently deceased, tries to come to grips with her possible inheritance: his insanity. Complicating matters are one of her father's ex-students, who wants to search through his papers, and her estranged sister, who shows up to help settle his affairs.
Director: John Madden | Stars: Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins, Hope Davis, Jake Gyllenhaal
Votes: 46,310 | Gross: $7.52M
All about inheriting insanity & brilliance.
14. Personal Effects (2009)
R | 111 min | Drama, Romance
A 24 y.o. wrestler/McJobroni man meets a mom 20+ years older at group therapy for family of murder victims (sister and husband). He helps her deaf teenage son. She invites him to weddings. They await convictions on the murder trials.
Director: David Hollander | Stars: Michelle Pfeiffer, Ashton Kutcher, Kathy Bates, Spencer Hudson
Votes: 9,173
A deaf boy who underwent a traumatic & life altering change finds an outlet in wrestling, while his mother seeks out a support group & new love
15. Reign Over Me (2007)
R | 124 min | Drama
A man who lost his family in the September 11 attack on New York City runs into his old college roommate. Rekindling the friendship is the one thing that appears able to help the man recover from his grief.
Director: Mike Binder | Stars: Adam Sandler, Don Cheadle, Jada Pinkett Smith, Liv Tyler
Votes: 99,601 | Gross: $19.66M
A quirky look at a devastated man rebuilding & trying to live life with severe PTSD.
16. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011)
PG-13 | 129 min | Adventure, Drama, Mystery
A nine-year-old amateur inventor, Francophile, and pacifist searches New York City for the lock that matches a mysterious key left behind by his father, who died in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
Director: Stephen Daldry | Stars: Thomas Horn, Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Max von Sydow
Votes: 105,170 | Gross: $31.85M
A 9 year old boy, who has amazing talent as an amateur inventor, seeks clues left behind from his father. His social anxiety caused by Aspergers syndrome makes his travels across New York City a frightening & challenging adventure.
17. Martian Child (2007)
PG | 106 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
A science-fiction writer, recently widowed, considers whether to adopt a hyper-imaginative 6-year-old abandoned and socially rejected boy who says he's really from Mars.
Director: Menno Meyjes | Stars: John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Bobby Coleman, Sophie Okonedo
Votes: 20,948 | Gross: $7.49M
18. Ray (I) (2004)
PG-13 | 152 min | Biography, Drama, Music
The story of the life and career of the legendary rhythm and blues musician Ray Charles, from his humble beginnings in the South, where he went blind at age seven, to his meteoric rise to stardom during the 1950s and 1960s.
Director: Taylor Hackford | Stars: Jamie Foxx, Regina King, Kerry Washington, Clifton Powell
Votes: 157,384 | Gross: $75.33M
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