Ben X Review

Ben X Review

Monologues used in the film

    Ben X is a refreshing movie made in Belgium. Overall, it is a very good and heavy movie. Unlike typical entertainment movies, this movie is intended to be controversial and thought provoking. From the beginning to the end, the movie strives to leave a message about various problems in our society. The movie incorporates dark mood which adds seriousness to the movie. Characteristically, the movie shows monologues of characters like an interview, so the audience feels like they’re watching a real documentary.

   The movie did a nice job in addressing various social issues. It deals with many issues such as autism, suicide, bullying at school, virtual reality, indifferent society, and family discord such as divorce. Dealing with many issues certainly has risks. The movie might lose its focus and deal with each issue superficially. However, the movie cleverly blends those issues into Ben’s life story and makes connection between the issues it’s dealing with. For instance, being bullied at school, which is his reality, leads Ben to be obsessed with his fake identity inside the computer game. Accordingly, bullying causes Ben to consider suicide as an escape from his harsh reality. This also shows that our society is indifferent to individuals because while he was making a whole book containing methods of suicide, nobody even cares about it.

      The twist at the ending was brilliant. Throughout the movie, the movie foreshadows that something terrible is going to happen. At the beginning, Ben’s mother says something like “somebody had to die. That’s when people realize things are wrong.” Viewers start to expect that somebody will die in the film. However, when the movie reaches the end, the movie overturns viewer’s expectation by showing that the death of Ben was actually fabricated. It was the family’s plan to help Ben from bullies. After that, when the audience begins to expect that all the conflicts have been resolved, the movie shows that the girl who Ben fell in love with was actually an illusion. The movie breaks the viewers’ expectations one more time.   

     Ben X shows why people get addicted to computer games. When we see game addicts, we blame the addict for their intemperance. We assume that there is a problem with that individual. However, most of the game addicts are people who seek escape from their harsh and seemingly inescapable reality. In pathological modern society, it is very hard to get consolation from reality. Ben X shows that society is to blame, not the individual.

Ben is bullied at his school because he is autistic

     Also, the movie reveals how selfishly and hypocritically we view and treat autistic people. Ben has suffered from bullying since he was very young, which made him obsessed with game and suicide. The doctors who treat Ben only try to explain and understand Ben in their standards and don’t care about Ben’s current situations and predicaments. Some doctors put Ben in stressful situation, and doctors don’t even realize that he has been bullied.  

      This movie is not perfect. There are some irrelevant scenes that blur the message, like the scene in which the car runs toward Ben’s mother. The editing was bit unnatural. However, the message the movie tried to convey is serious and the method it used was original and effective.