Out Of My Mind 2024

 Out Of My Mind


“I know the name of her condition doctor, but a person is so much more than a diagnosis on a chart.”

“She's the one with the true intelligence.”

“But there's nobody else like me, it's like I live in a cage with no door and no key.”

-Sharon M Draper,
Out of My Mind

There are so many things that you don't know until you know them, so many life events that affect you in ways that you do not expect. When it comes to disability this is doubly true. We are often not given the opportunity to experience life as we know we can. Now, I am certainly not pointing fingers here, though the need for experience is a necessary part of the disability conversation. That is why Disney's adaptation of Sharon M Draper's Out of My Mind is such a delightful and heartfelt journey through youth. A journey to be known, and seen for who we are and who we long to be.
This film meaningfully depicts disability, not as a detriment to life, but as a vehicle for understanding. Both film and novel are welcome reminders that you may have challenges, but those challenges do not determine who you are inside. Melody's Cerebral Palsy does not separate her from others. It calls her to show others that her difference does not define her in the ways they think it does. In fact, her disability allows her to excel in many ways that her fifth-grade peers can not comprehend. Melody's deeper awareness of her inner life, her thought processes, allows her to more intently focus on the world around her. Consequently, she is able to take in more information and process it to a better degree than her classmates. Silence is Melody's superpower. It is the place where she finds her strength, and her ability to succeed where others believe she will fail.
Out of My Mind Is a charm filled delight of a film that throws open the doors of disability and welcomes all in. It is a film well aware of the stigmas associated with disability, and it challenges those misconceptions with honesty and wit. I would like to thank director Amber Sealey and her team, as well as author Sharon M Draper for enthusiastically debunking the myths surrounding Cerebral Palsy.
I may not have difficulty communicating as Melody does, but I do know what it feels like to be defined by a wheelchair and Cerebral Palsy. I think Melody's story is a great vantage point for younger audiences (middle school age and up) to see into the world of disability. Hopefully, it allows them to realize that, just because you are confined to a wheelchair or have difficulty communicating it does not mean you have nothing to say.

Rated PG for strong thematic elements

I found both the film and novel of Out Of My Mind to be extraordinarily insightful, meaningful and entertaining. I hope in some way you do too.

Happy Thanksgiving.




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