Henry & Verlin

By Lew Blancher

Where there have been many and maudlin attempts to reflect the lives of people with disabilities in story and full-length film that have failed, "Henry & Verlin" depicts our reality triumphantly.

This is a Canadian movie, created by a Canadian crew and performed by Canadian actors. These facts alone, with the proven excellence of our performing artists, should lend "Henry & Verlin" the credibility it deserves. It has all the qualities necessary to make a movie great, from period setting to lush scenery, to strong characterization and story plot.

Set in the Depression years when little was understood about congenital abnormalities, the story centres around two characters unlikely to be thrown together. Verlin is a nine-year-old boy with autism, and his middle-aged uncle, Henry, is -- well, intellectually "slow." When they are alone together, however, these rather arbitrary descriptions quickly sink into oblivion.

Before they join to fashion an adventure the way only children can, both of them are caught up in what might be dubbed as the "gentle tyranny" of the people and society around them. Verlin’s mother is impatient with his silence and her inability to connect with him. He will not say his name or hers when she spells them out with wooden blocks. His rocking merely increases with her insistence that he stop.

And while Henry makes "good smokes," letting his father and brother pluck them thanklessly from behind his ears, he is always sent docilely away, to be excluded from any important family function. His sense of being different is real and palpable. His place he knows, and he assumes the role satisfactorily.

But when these two come together, running through their farmland and into the wilds in Opeongo County near Ottawa, there is no role to play, no wooden blocks to read, no rocking. There is only friendship, laughter, discovery and boundless freedom.

After the first time Verlin is introduced to freedom, his distressed mother ties him to the clothesline. He has returned home with his lip split. (He earned the badge while riding on Henry’s shoulders -- Henry had neglected to duck while entering the home of the local prostitute.) But good old Uncle Henry’s pocket knife severs the restraining rope, and away they go again, the branches of trees slapping the face of bouncing Verlin.

Except for two words spoken by Henry -- "Well, Verlin?” -- there is no conversation between them. There is no need. Verlin learns the taste of cold spring water from cupped hands. He learns by jumping fully clothed into a creek that he can be carefree. He learns, from someone three times his age, to be a boy, which means he can fill his mouth with water and squirt it into a nearby face, and laugh in delight at the success. Most of all, he learns the freedom of unconditional love.

But always, sitting like a bloody-eyed dragon on the periphery of their little world, is the threat of the "Cove" -- the Cove Sanitorium in which individuals who are mentally ill are warehoused. The power of the eventuality of Henry’s being committed lurks in the personages of the disapproving, busy-bodied women of the local district council.

While on their continuing adventure one day, Henry and Verlin stop to make and light a smoke in Henry’s father’s barn. After a puff or two, Henry invites Verlin to try. With a wide grin, the boy pulls hard and long on the smoke. He sputters and coughs convulsively, sending the cigarette into the dry, thickly strewn straw. Soon the straw is aflame, and the fire has grown healthily before Henry notices. Stamping can’t keep up with it. At last, he tries the only readily available liquid he has, but the menacing flames exhaust his supply. He tries to recruit Verlin’s help, but in the excitement the flurry of new gestures aren’t understood. Henry kneels to open the boy’s pants. Just at that moment, the ladies spy the smoke and run to witness the scene. The resulting outrage over what is suspected leaves the barn ablaze.

The disapproval resounds. Henry, it is decided by a council of ladies, has to go to the Cove. Persistent pressure and a sense of duty prompt Henry’s older brother, Ferris, to sign the admission papers, and Henry and the sherriff are soon on the train heading for the infamous institution.

Verlin learns of his cherished buddy’s leaving and how. He runs to the only part of the railway tracks he knows and stands resolutely between them. The engineer sees him in good time; but his effort to pull Verlin from the cowcatcher fails, and a second man has to be recruited before the angry boy can be pried away. In the confusion, Henry sneaks off and then, with Verlin’s hand in his, like many times before, waves the train goodbye.

At last the Cove claims Henry, and with his disappearance Verlin relapses, not only back into his rocking but into despondency. He becomes obstreperous and hard to handle. He, too, is committed to the Cove. Verlin is lashed, without a struggle, with leather straps to a table, and lies in lassitude until he is discovered by Henry.

Meanwhile, Verlin’s parents are having second thoughts about what they have done. Their love for Verlin wins out and they return to the Cove to reclaim him. There, they are told their boy and his uncle escaped the night before and have not yet been found. A smirk crosses their faces and they hurry off.

They find the carefree fellows frolicking in a field of goldenrod.

"Henry & Verlin" is written and directed by Gary Ledbetter and produced by John Board. The film will be released for public viewing at galas and benefit performances in the Toronto area and other major Canadian cities in conjunction with next Valentine’s Day.

The personal goal of the producer is to help various North American charities raise a total of $1.5-million using the film. Opeongo Films Inc. welcomes inquiries from any charity in a large city that wishes to consider this film for fundraising. For more information about benefit screenings of "Henry & Verlin," contact John Board at Opeongo Films Inc., (416) 368-4039.

(Lew Blancher is a freelance writer living in Toronto.)