This absorbing, touching, sometimes comic domestic story finds Jack (AnnaSophia Robb), an overgrown street urchin on the lam from her parole officer, undergoing a complete makeover in order to impersonate a qualified caretaker for an autistic girl. Jack lands a job with a frazzled, fractious family whose young daughter, Glory (a wonderfully convincing performance by Taylor Richardson), is a wild child violently rejecting all structure, exhausting her mother, Kay (Famke Janssen), and father, Mark (Scott Cohen). Financial strain is making everything worse, limiting the options for Glory's older brother, Robert (Israel Broussard), to seek higher education. Jack shows up as “Donna” and is hired to watch over Glory at home and school. Knowing nothing about autism, Jack is initially overwhelmed but eventually learns enough to give Glory a fighting chance at communicating and fitting in. Director Janet Grillo is very good at balancing multiple story threads: Jack's desire to reunite with a younger sister in foster care; Robert's frustrations and attraction to Jack; Mark and Kay's eroding marriage; and Glory's deepening affection for her minder. Of course, the viewer knows that sooner or later the boom will be lowered on Jack, but the film doesn't cop out or resort to magical thinking, instead delivering some well-earned hope and a spark of redemption. Recommended. (T. Keogh)
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