Temple Grandin (Claire Danes) isn't diagnosed as Austic until much later in life, but she is lucky enough to be born into a wealthy family with a loving mother who never gave up on her child's challenges. Temple didn't speak until she was four, was kicked out of public school and placed in the Hampshire Country School for children with behavioral problems after throwing a book at a student who was teasing her. There she meets William Carlock, a Science teacher who once worked for NASA who becomes her lifelong mentor. This event, and a summer she spent on her step-father's sister's ranch in Arizona at the age of 15 change the course of her life.This film shows the challenges a person with Austism faces and what is possible given the right circumstances and opportunities. Temple received a Ph.D in Animal Husbandry, teaches at Colorado State, and is a spokesperson on Autism.

I enjoyed this biopic because of the animals, not the heroine. After a while I got very irritated by her bulging eyes, tantrums, and hysterical behaviour, relentless and in the end boring and annoying. I doubt if anyone could live with that constant emotional melodrama. The saintly sister was sickeningly nice and good. This SO unrealistic. Most people would be nice and long-suffering but swear when out of her presence or with empathetic others. The film makers didn't introduce humour to lighten up the movie. This film didn't improve for me so I stopped watching it after an hour.

It's summer 1966 Arizona. Temple Grandin (Claire Danes) is an autistic woman staying at her aunt Ann (Catherine O'Hara)'s ranch getting ready to go to college. She can't understand people but finds it easy to understand horses and cattle. She comes up with a squeeze box to calm herself. With the help of her loving but overwhelmed mother (Julia Ormond), mentor Dr. Carlock (David Strathairn), and others, she is able to study, publish, and work on animal handling despite facing a disbelieving and alien world.This is a surprisingly powerful movie. Claire Danes delivers a great performance. I have never cared for animal handling more. This is more than a TV movie and this could have turned into a movie of the week. Instead, it's cinematic and emotional. The story is so compelling and she is such a great underdog story. It builds to heart-warming final scenes at the autistic convention.

Temple Grandin is one of the best films that I have ever seen. I am a big Claire Danes fan from way back, and she is terrific. The rest of the film-making is superb as well. The editing and use of drawing-like visual effect overlays works very well, in particular. Basically, this is a depiction of a real woman who is autistic, and happens to be a leading innovator in dealing with livestock. That may sound like an odd basis for a film, but it works, and it is not boring or dull at all. Granted, it is not full of explosions and sex, but it is absolutely interesting, funny, moving, and more than worthwhile.In pretty much every way, this is an extremely good film, thought provoking and refreshingly different from a lot of what you see.