People often run away into imaginary worlds, these days it has become much easier to do. Active development of the entertainment industry and high technology gave to mankind online games - huge universes where you can be anyone. In the life of Ben mentally ill person, it is difficult to communicate with the outside world, the fact that the norm for others, for Ben - a mathematical equation that can not be solved.Each output abroad, at home - a struggle, any action, whether it be a trip on the bus or the presence in the classroom at the school - the struggle. But the Internet gave him a whole new world - Archlord game in the genre of MMORPG (his nickname Ben_X), for the year, Ben has made impressive progress. The computer game was much closer to him the reality, in which he has been acting in the role of public ridicule. And the most incredible thing that he has it - Princess who loves him, cares about it. Ben is not a stranger to her people, and a close friend, with whom she wants to meet you.In the picture on the screen constantly wedge shots from the game, Ben continually imposes reality on this computer. But he does so not from the fact that the game is a fan of these people sit down voluntarily, so they just bury their heads in the sand. Ben also has no way out, since even the atmosphere of our planet is deadly for him (he has a bad heart, and the stress caused by being in the urban infrastructure can have extremely negative consequences) of this kind of psychological relief is vital to him.Subject of care of people in online games, and a literal departure, when throwing a job or to part with loved ones for the sake of staying in an illusory world is certainly relevant. That's just not a movie about it, he, of course, touches upon this subject, but only indirectly, although in many reviews of wrongly focus on computer-dependent Ben.Ben constantly think in terms of the game, obviously it helps him, at least in part, to find a foothold in reality incomprehensible to him. His powerlessness produces a pity, in fact it is a bad person, just by nature incapable of adapting to society. But Ben wants it, every morning rehearsing a smile in the mirror - because it's made, or a studied response to questions his mother, he seeks to appear normal. Somewhere in the depths of consciousness, he does not lose the hope to join the society.That's just nothing comes of it. His mother drags him to the doctors who use Ben as a walking laboratory for psychological experiments, endlessly stuffing his pills, giving advice, which, however, no they do not help improve the condition of Man. Mother refuses to believe that her son did not fit into a group of his peers, says that "we need to fight," and every day sends Ben to school is actually giving his son at the mercy of sadists. Classmates are constantly inventing new ways to abuse of a fool, zealous to each other in an attempt to inflict more pain defenseless man.No, I can not say that he hates the whole school, some throw one or two sympathetic glance, that's just from this compassion, the soul is even nastier. Formally, these "sympathizers" like in the camp of those who "for Ben," people believe that "Ben is the same as us" - they are good. But none of them did not protect Ben from the cruel jokes classmates, these good people and sat on the sidelines the whole movie, because afraid to go against the majority.The film tells about how cruel people, Ben is a handy magnifying glass through which the creator of the picture shows what is in people. It is difficult to convey the impression of the picture, as the view there is a feeling like your soul with the force of an ice pick stuck trying to crumble it. "Ben X" indirectly discusses the "Rain Man" or "Forrest Gump" because these tapes are united by one thing - the main characters in them mentally retarded, handicapped citizens of society. They are completely different, this otherness makes familiar things find themselves close to these "aliens" is more prominent and bright: the evil inflicted by such person in the eyes of the audience increases a hundredfold, and good is all the more valuable and necessary.But at the same time, "Ben X" is radically different from the "Rain Man" and "Forrest Gump," if in the same "... Gump" people eventually find strength within themselves to accept such a hero Hank's what it is, in this case All submitted otherwise. Roughly speaking, a person has a long and severely beaten, in order to instill in him an understanding of the simple fact that Ben - also a man.Due to an interesting story, the director's findings, transferred to the screen the status of mentally abnormal, the acting brilliant, I can safely put in a number of all the films mentioned above. This is a masterpiece.

I caught this on TV, and what got my attention was that it involved online gaming, since I'm a gamer, I stayed and watched it thinking it was a fantasy movie. At first I thought it was weird (well, it was different, but in a good way). This movie is beautiful, it has great soundtrack and the actor playing Ben is amazing. There have been many movies about Asperger's syndrome lately, but this gave us a whole new perspective of a boy living in Belgium, hiding behind an online game character. I would love to see it again, but it hasn't been on TV again and I can't find it in Mexico. This is one of my favorite movies lately, you have to watch it there are no words to really describe the feeling of watching it.

Movies about characters with disabilities usually focus on how the personal deficiencies were overcome, with everyone, especially the audience, feeling good in the end. This is not that kind of movie. Ben, the central character, is an autistic high school student subjected to repeated excruciating torments by his classmates. Everyday in school he gets slapped and pushed around while he cowers helplessly. Later he is subjected to a most traumatic assault by two of the meaner classmates, one cruel asault shown in the internet as a crowd of students cheer and jeer. Ben's divorced parents and the school authorities seem as helpless as Ben. As this goes on without respite I felt that Director Balthazar, (who wrote and directed this from his own novel), enjoyed Ben's suffering as much as his sadistic classmates. Somewhere along the movie I became convinced that Balthazar is submitting his own entry into the Torture Film Genre (Michael Haneke's "Funny Games" ('97), Mel Gibson's "The Passion of Christ"). Ben's consolation is playing his sword-and-sandal superhero video game, Archlord. This is used to tease the audience that at a certain point Ben will emulate his hero and fight back. He can never get himself to do it however. The only thing in that video game fantasy that becomes his salvation is the appearance of a young woman, Scarlite, who gives him the courage to act on his solution -- to die. It is this act that Balthazar uses to end the movie supposedly to shame Ben's tormentors and all the school authorities, into remorse over everything done to Ben. This retaliation that Balthazar cooked up, that these young brutes and thugs, these indifferent, uncaring and indifferent adults, can supposedly be shamed, I find not only naive but phony, artistically inane and dishonest. After showing us throughout the movie a group of irreparably thuggish youths and indifferent uncaring adults, Balthazar wants us to think that these people can be shamed into remorse and reforming. Balthazar's whole point seems to be that the only refuge the emotionally and mentally handicap can find is in the fantasy of video games, that the real world will always be cruel, even to the point of turning video -- the only world he can escape to -- into yet another torment. Balthazar probably forgot that the film world is bursting to its seams with Christ metaphors and Christ themes have long been exhausted, and any new attempt is artificial and shallow. Timmermans' performance, even if he looks older to be a high school student, is highly commendable. Ben's absorbing fear of the world outside his room and his video screen is perfectly encapsulated in the way he coils unto himself, the way he walks as though anticipating to fall or sink as he takes his next step, the contortions on his face as he walks through the gauntlet of students. The repeated shots from above when Ben gets out of his house looking like a creature coming out of a hole in the ground is a haunting image, implying his being not of this world. This is a well-photographed movie with a good script, very well acted by all, especially Timmermans and Verlinden, but the treatment of a disabled life really stinks.Tito Alquizola ##

You won't watch this movie. You'll live it. One of the best films. It's a terrible shame that foreign films of this caliber get no press, no distribution and no money in the U.S. I just got an alert that ten lines of text are required to submit this comment. I don't really want to get into a critical analysis of story structure and style elements and so on - it's all amazing: the acting, the character, the realism, the fantasy, the twist. There's no higher achievement for a film than to make you experience what is going on on screen. The only recent films that made me feel that way are Babel and No Country for Old Men, both nominated for Oscars.