Mission to Lars

The premise of this documentary is wholly contrived, but it's made with sincerity. Film-maker Will Spicer and his journalist sister Kate (best known as a food critic) aim to repair their fraying relationship and get to know their brother Tom a bit better on a road trip across the United States to meet his hero, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich. Forty-year-old Tom suffers from a rare form of autism called Fragile X syndrome and, just as their parents had warned, Will and Kate find Tom and his condition increasingly hard to handle, especially as the big meeting in Las Vegas approaches. A potentially intrusive and sentimental scenario is tackled with great compassion and wit in a film (made on a shoestring) that illustrates why disability should never be a handicap. It also reveals the softer side of hard rock. Always intimate, warm and honest, this may be a very public way to kiss and make up, but it is inspiring and deeply moving, too.