Not since Like Normal People — the 1979 TV movie starring Sean Cassidy and Linda Purl as a developmentally disabled couple determined to marry — has a more physically perfect specimen been cast to play the part of an intellectually challenged character. The radiant Moran Rosenblatt stars as Hagit, a 24-year-old Israeli toilet paper factory employee living with what’s described as a “mild mental deficiency.” An overprotective mother somehow fails to detect the girl’s infatuation with the boss’s son Omri (Roy Assaf), a horndog foolish enough to encourage heavy petting, but just wise enough to keep it zipped. The sudden third-act character reversal he undergoes while watching his friends put the moves on Hagit is as puzzling as it is uncalled for. For every What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? (DiCaprio’s faultless turn as Arnie Grape set the bar for performances such as this), there are literally dozens of outwardly well-intentioned films that, through every fault of their own, idealize mental illness past the point of exploitation. (2015) — Scott Marks
This movie is not currently in theaters.