Temple Grandin

As noted, none of this seems like the stuff of riveting drama. It is, though. Still only 30, Danes shows she's now ready and able to take command of any acting challenge put in her path.

Temple Grandin is an amazingly assembled, superbly acted, strikingly sweet film about Grandin's life -- and the cows' death.

HBO's fine biopic serves as an important reminder that people with autism spectrum disorders are individuals rather than collections of tics.

What's striking about Temple Grandin is the absence of sentimentality; no syrupy music, no saccharine climax - just a rich glimpse inside a rare mind.

It is, of course, the kind of role that is notoriously awardable... But there is real nuance here too, in the way that Danes shows you Grandin's increasing ability to manage her own panic and uncertainty

It helps that Danes is phenomenal, going so deep inside the character as to be unrecognizable to fans of her Romeo + Juliet, Me and Orson Welles and My So-Called Life performances.

Temple Grandin turns out to be the kind of biopic Hollywood rarely makes anymore: It's positive, revealing and surprising; an intelligent period piece without sex or violence that's virtually free of profanity.

The film simply asks us to reconsider how we view those with autism, and by the end of the film, it's worked.

I keep coming back to Ormond, who can be heartbreaking as the mother who yearns for the hug she will never get but is nonetheless determined that her child's potential will be realized.

Danes so completely immerses herself in her character that her performance becomes refreshingly free of actorly artifice.