The Spanish film Me,Too (Yo, También) is a must-see film for those interested in disability and sexual rights. But, then again, maybe it is a better film for those who do not have those interests. The film quietly and skillfully changes our lens on marginalization and disability.
Me,Too is, in one sense, a very simple story of friendship, love and desire. Yet the main character, Daniel, is a 34-year-old man with Down Syndrome and a college degree. He is earnest, intelligent and falls for his co-worker. Laura is his opposite: estranged from her family, she’s a peroxide blonde who smokes heavily and is seen by others as a messed-up slut. Their relationship goes far beyond the normal boy-meets-girl scenario.
Both characters question what it is to be a normal sexual being, and the buzz from their co-workers, friends and families only confirms societal beliefs that they are not normal and that their friendship is somehow wrong.
As the upper-class, well-educated Daniel grapples with his feelings of desire for Laura, his otherwise supportive family persists in discouraging him, telling him that no “normal” woman would have him. But as we come to know the lives and the relationship of these two people, we wonder how they could ever be considered marginal — and what a better society we would live in if the old “marginal” was the new “normal.”
Brilliantly acted and beautifully crafted, this film achieves what only the finest films achieve, leaving its viewers to question their own assumptions and stereotypes, with just the slightest additional hope in our fellow humans.
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