The Fundamentals of Caring- a surprisingly decent film about disability

Demi Nicks
Jul 1, 2016
4 min read

At the beginning of June, disability took a spot light in the media surrounding the release of film Me Before You. Regrettably and in the opinion of many, including myself, the film perpetuated negative stereotypes concerning persons with disabilities and caused a bit of a ruckus. [See my article entitled, “Me Before You- Conflict Over New Film,” also on my blog, for the full spiel.] On the 24th of June, Netflix released an original film, The Fundamentals of Caring. The movie is about a young man named Trevor who has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (played by Craig Roberts), his caregiver Ben (played by Paul Rudd), and hitchhiker/new friend Dot (played by Selena Gomez) who end up on an

adventure-filled road trip. As a general note, the film is quite humorous, mostly light-hearted, and presents a much more positive view of those with disabilities. As someone who has known several individuals with DMD and having a neuromuscular disease which causes many similar symptoms as those with DMD myself, I have a few comments regarding things I liked and related to in The Fundamentals of Caring, as well as a few things I didn’t like so much. [SOME SPOILERS TO FOLLOW!] Here goes!: One aspect of the film I certainly related to was its presentation of the sometimes complicated caregiver-client relationship. At the end of the day, being a paid caregiver is a job. The health care industry emphasizes this and discourages workers from forming any kind of personal relationship with clients. These boundaries are easy to keep in some cases. However, caregivers are responsible for aiding with very personal tasks (dressing, showering, bathrooming, grooming, and any other activity of daily living you can think of) and when you combine that with personalities that agree, it is nearly impossible to not form an emotional bond. I personally have found that my caretakers who I also consider friends, are the best at their job. The relationship between Trevor and Ben, including how Ben was chosen by Trevor, is entertaining and realistic in my opinion, which I appreciated. An endearing part of Trevor’s character is his abrasive and vulgar sense of humor, often revolving around sexual material. On the surface, his vulgar comments are simply funny. The disabled are often infantilized and on a deeper level, the funny comments illustrate that persons with disabilities have the same thoughts and desires as everyone else. It is for this reason that I also appreciated the relationship between Trevor and Dot. Dot shares a similarly abrasive and vulgar, yet endearing personality, demonstrated in one of her first conversations with Trevor. Among several other blunt questions, she asks if his penis works- not an unusual occurrence for men with disabilities and equivalent questions for women with disabilities. As I touched on in my article about Me Before You, I believe this stems from the fact that society is cluttered with an image of disability that does not include sexuality or romantic possibility. The audience sees Trevor do all the “normal things.” Trevor crushes on Dot, nervously asks her on a date, and successfully courts her throughout the movie. The film also addresses the difficulty of traveling with a disability and how instances of inaccessibility are sometimes unexpectedly encountered. Though most everything is handled with humor, it illustrates how some view inaccessibility with a “too bad” attitude and won’t do anything to fix the situation with out a push or fear of reprimand. As for the “bad things” about the film, my list is actually fairly short. As previously mentioned, I have known several individuals with DMD. I found Trevor’s character to be a bit too “healthy” for his age (though the progression of many types of Muscular Dystrophy are different from person to person). For example, I was expecting less muscle strength and control and more contracture of the limbs. At the very least, there were inconsistencies with tasks he was shown doing independently and tasks he required help with. These issues of unrealistic representations and inconsistencies could be solved with the use of disabled actors. Secondly, at the start of the film, Trevor is portrayed as living a boring, repetitive life with little exploration outside of his home. This pattern is soon broken with a push from Ben (who tells Trevor that disabled people go out and do things) and Trevor’s idea for a road trip, but the home-bound disabled person is a tired stereotype. All in all, I enjoyed the film and am glad that the disabled, the largest minority group, seem to be establishing a place in the media and are becoming visible. I hope that one day a person with a disability can play a leading role where the disability is not necessarily the main focus, but rather, just one part of an individual’s story with out the negative stereotypes (e.g. Charles Xavier from X-men maybe?). I recommend The Fundamentals of Caring to anyone looking for a funny feel-good.