The Story of Luke is a movie about an autistic young man whose guardian dies so he must create a new life and adjust to a new home with family members that are not as nurturing as his grandmother was. The Story of Luke is a rated R Hallmark movie or Sunday night CBS movie.
I’m not sure how The Story of Luke ended up in my queue, but I suspect that it is because Kristin Bauer is in it, and she played Pam in True Blood. I have mixed feelings about The Story of Luke other than being delighted to get my Bauer fix.
The Story of Luke feels like it has an irreverent checklist: vulgar old man speaking about sex to innocent autistic grandson, teenage boy getting autistic cousin drunk, aunt and uncle venting about problems in marriage bed to autistic nephew, autistic young man repeating all the inappropriate things said to him, etc. The Story of Luke treated the family dynamic as if the main character just met these people as opposed to seeing them at least on holidays and being vaguely familiar with him. This dynamic made it more jarring considering their criticism of his mother who abandoned him and has nothing to do with him. Sure they’re doing more to help him than she ever did, but the way that they talk is as if they have always been at least passingly involved in his life, but act like they just met him. One of these things is not like the other. The story of The Story of Luke needed some work.
I also think that Seth Green was the weakest part of the story. It felt like he played his character’s disability more for laughs as if he escaped the set of The Office than authenticity until the end when he works with Luke on the quest to mimic an average human being. Then everything becomes achingly focused and wonderful.
The Story of Luke is extremely uneven and is not required viewing unless you too are a Kristin Bauer fan or want to judge for yourself if the movie fairly represented the struggles of an autistic young man.