Meet Thomas Mollison (Rhys Wakefield). His mother (Toni Collette, "Little Miss Sunshine") is pregnant — very pregnant — and ignoring her doctor's orders for bed rest. His dad (Erik Thomson) is a little preoccupied with work and forced to take over all the housekeeping that his mother shouldn't be doing.

This leaves Thomas to deal with his brother, Charlie (Luke Ford), who is severely autistic. To make matters worse, his family has just moved to a new neighborhood, and Thomas has had to start at a new high school. And then there's Jackie (Gemma Ward), the cute blonde girl from gym class. What's a guy to do?

"The Black Balloon" was first released in Australia in March 2008. The film's co-writer and director, Elissa Down, grew up with two autistic siblings, so the characters and emotions of "The Black Balloon" are all incredibly raw and realized. While the film's conclusions may seem tidy and sudden, it also shows just how complicated Thomas and Charlie's relationship can be.

The whole family is challenged by the stress of Charlie's disability: he's prone to running out of the house and lapping the neighborhood in his (monkey-patterned) underpants, he's been known to break into other people's houses to use the bathroom and he can throw a temper tantrum to rival just about anybody.

We don't know exactly how old either Thomas or Charlie is. Thomas is in high school — though we only ever see him in gym class or standing outside the school — and seems to be about 16. Wakefield, although 20 years old in real life, plays a convincing teenager on screen.

Even more convincing and worthy of praise is Ford's portrayal of Charlie. Ford's performance won him an Australian Film Institute Award for Best Supporting Actor. It would have been incredibly easy to over-play the role of someone in Charlie's condition, but Ford's performance is remarkable. It takes a few minutes with Google to discern that Ford wasn't an autism sufferer himself.

Overall, the film's plot is simple: Boy moves to new town, boy meets cute girl, boy struggles with difficult family situation.

Eventually, coping with Charlie's condition proves too much for Thomas, leading to a climactic confrontation. While the film's ending feels almost too convenient, it offers an honest portrayal of Thomas' complicated feelings about his brother. He is at once frustrated, protective and deeply affectionate toward Charlie, and these feelings are all closely intertwined.