Cody: The First Step

Glenn Close narrates this inspiring profile of 21-year-old Cody Unser (daughter of Indianapolis 500 champion Al Unser Jr.), who at the age of 12 lost the sensation in her legs while playing basketball. Now an attractive and vivacious college student, Cody explains that she has a condition known as transverse myelitis, the result of her immune system attacking her spinal cord. Filmmaker Chris Schueler interweaves home video footage of Cody as an active youngster, together with contemporary scenes of her working out, navigating the Redlands University campus, driving by herself (with her collapsible wheelchair in the back of the car), and making public appearances as the head of the Cody Unser First Step Foundation, which seeks to increase awareness of all types of spinal-based paralysis, while also lobbying on behalf of stem cell research. Cody claims that her condition actually changed her life for the better (although she's eager for the day when she can walk again), and acknowledges her good fortune in growing up in a financially secure environment, which seems to have inspired her desire to give back. Schueler also elicits comments from Cody's mother, sister, boyfriend, and neurological specialists at Johns Hopkins, who discuss her chances for future mobility. A solid documentary that doesn't shy away from discussing day-to-day details that some documentaries about paralysis omit—related to bathing and sexual desire, for instance—this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)