A romcom worth rooting for

AUTISM is a significant impediment to love in Keep the Change, a movie in which most of the cast are non-professionals, drawn from an autism support group at Manhattan’s Jewish Community Centre. But class is also a barrier to romance in this story of a wealthy man who falls for a woman of modest means.

David (Brandon Polansky) is a high-functioning, 30-ish guy who imagines himself a budding filmmaker. He suffers panic attacks, quickly alienates all the women he meets on internet dating sites and loves to tell tasteless jokes, often to exactly the wrong audience.

It was a jest about a pig delivered to a policeman that led a judge to sentence him to attend the support group. At the community centre, David meets Sarah (Samantha Elisofon), who at first appears the more childlike of the two. Garrulous and always smiling, Sarah uses baby talk like “yummy in my tummy”, bursting into song at awkward moments.

But she’s more sophisticated than David about some things, including public transit and sex. David’s parents (Jessica Walter and Tibor Feldman) instantly disapprove of Sarah, whose bumptiousness clashes with their upper-crust reserve.

Autism aside, writer-director Rachel Israel’s debut film is a fairly typical, low-budget New York romance, complete with an excursion to Coney Island. What distinguishes it are Israel’s empathetic characterisations and the winning performances, not only by the leads, but also by the supporting players.

It’s impossible not to root for them, even in a scenario where happily-ever-after is a lot trickier than it is in most romcoms. – The Washington Post