Movie review: The Horse Boy

by John P. Meyer

In many ways, Michel O. Scott's The Horse Boy is a difficult film to watch. That's not because it's a bad film, but because it's such a good one.

The Horse Boy documents one family's struggle with autism, and how they took it upon themselves to seek help from the most unlikely and radically non-traditional of sources: shamanism.

Rupert Isaacson and his wife Kristin Neff were flying high on life. They had found (and married) each other, they had established successful careers, and they'd been blessed with the birth of their first child, a boy named Rowan. The Isaacsons lived a life of quiet and comfort on a farm outside Elgin, Texas. Then Rowan was diagnosed with autism -- and everything changed.

Rowan's need for constant supervision, thanks to uncontrollable (and unpredictable) tantrums and chronic incontinence, turned their lives into an ongoing, exhausting, mind-numbing nightmare.

Suddenly, a glimmer of light: Rowan strayed from the Isaacson's property onto the farm of their neighbor, coming into contact with a horse named Betsy. Rowan and Betsy seemed to have a kind of unspoken connection: The horse tolerated Rowan's less than gentle overtures, and Rowan found an unaccustomed calm in the presence of the horse. Rupert even discovered that he could take Rowan on horseback rides without fear of his son erupting into a screaming fit.

Having tried all varieties of traditional pharmacological treatments for his son's autism (with none of them seeming to do much good), Rupert -- being an open-minded sort of guy -- thought that there just might be something worth following up on here. He remembered his experiences as a journalist, reporting on the lives of African bushmen and their shamanistic healing traditions. He did some research on shamanism, cross-referencing on horses, and quickly discovered that Mongolia had just what he was looking for: a rich tradition of shamanism, coupled with a culture in which the horse plays a role of primary importance.

Rupert and Kristin put their everyday lives on hold, bought plane tickets to Ulaanbaatar, and took Rowan to Mongolia.

Scott's film includes interviews with leading scholars engaged in the study of autism, who agree that the condition stems from a neurological abnormality -- though beyond that, little can be agreed upon or understood, other than the fact that different sufferers suffer to different degrees: Some affected individuals are only mildly afflicted, while others are entirely incapacitated by the condition. Rowan shapes up to be among the latter group.

For 90 minutes, we follow Rowan and the Isaacsons on their epic, hopeful journey across the vast Mongolian steppe. At the outset, they are welcomed to a sacred hill outside the capital city by a gathering of shamans. They orchestrate a ritual healing involving milk and vodka; then things get weird, as both parents are vigorously whipped by the mystics. This establishes a precedent encountered time and again in the ceremonies in which they participate: Rowan's abnormality is linked to the psyches of his mom and dad.

Their progress along the shaman-to-shaman path is arduous. Rowan, who has developed an affinity for the van in which they begin their trip, perversely imprints on it instead of the horses with whom he has heretofore been so well attuned. Once they coach him back onto a horse, Kristin's own discomfort with the equine means of travel becomes a separate troubling issue.

Right up until the culmination of their quest (for a tribe of reindeer herders, thought to be the most accomplished of Mongolian shamans), we are given to wonder whether anything that's happening will have any sort of positive impact on Rowan -- or indeed on his parents, who by this time are questioning their own decision to undertake this long-shot course of action.

Will Rowan be cured of his condition? Do Rupert and Kristin come to terms with their own feelings of guilt, grief, and inadequacy? It would be unconscionable to spoil the impact of the film's redemptive ending with any further details. You'll just have to see it for yourself.

What other film will you see this year that thanks the National Shamans Association of Mongolia in the credits?

NOTE that Rupert Isaacson will be appearing in person at the Magnolia Theatre after the 7:30 p.m. screening of the film on Friday, Sept. 11 to answer questions about this remarkable true story. (He's also written a book about his experiences, called The Horse Boy: A Father’s Quest to Heal His Son.)