When Raun Kaufman was born, he appeared to be a perfectly regular, healthy baby until around his first birthday. That was when he began exhibiting symptoms of what we now know as "classic" autism. But through round-the-clock support and therapy from his parents, Samahria and Barry, he seemed to recover from it. The 1979 TV docudrama Son-Rise: A Miracle of Love, adapted from Barry's book of the same title, recounts the Kaufmans' efforts to adjust to their son's diagnosis and then to help him with it.
While I have some reservations about its message encouraging curing autism, I found this to be a remarkably compassionate, accurate and honest examination of autism for its time and in any case, the neurodiversity movements and widespread public awareness of the autism spectrum were both decades away. I do think this film should be viewed, as a depiction of autism, within the context of its era, but regardless, as it stands it's also a valuable document of public and artistic attitudes towards autistics in the late 1970s. I'd also suspect it generated some awareness of the spectrum then, too.
Director Glenn Jordan gets strong performances from James Farentino and particularly Kathryn Harrold as the Kaufmans (who were ne-named Bears and Suzy for the movie), with twins Casey and Michael Adams sharing the part of Raun. The production values here are unremarkable but they were never the point here. That was to recreate a hopeful, inspiring true story of one family proving a diagnosis is not a destiny.
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