Ben X

There have been some relatively awful video game-themed movies (I'm looking at you, Fred Savage), but thankfully Ben X handles it quite well.

Ben suffers from the mild form of autism known as Aspergers, and as bullying and social ostracism grows worse at his high school, he begins to confuse his favorite swords and sorcerers video game with real life. The blending of the two works quite well, and adds a bit of surrealism to the story, but in the end this is more of a conventional drama than the description would suggest.

This is by no means a bad thing; the characters are strong, and easy to identify with. The actors do a great job, and especially in portraying the pain of Ben's parents as they find themselves unable to do anything to help their child. The bullies may be a bit overdone, but as a whole it gives a good sense of what the world looks like from his eyes.

A couple things could use improvement: like so many indie films, digital cameras hurt the overall feel of the movie. And a few scenes are drawn out maybe longer than necessary. But the good strongly outweighs the bad, and the message and acting make it well worth seeing.