Biography is a bit of a strange business, depending on one's perspective. From the perspective of the storyteller, the subject is always adorable or at least worthy of adoration. Autobiography tends to be more interesting in the sense that it can convey a great deal of personality, assuming the subject actually does the writing... Biography on a personality that one has great interest in knowing will almost always succeed, but what about a biographical study of those lesser known celebrities? By this, we mean those people who may be held in incredibly high regard by some minority part of the population, while remaining a complete unknown to the majority. This pretty well described Temple Grandin up to the point that she became a cause celebre for Oliver Sacks, whose studies on brain disorder spun off more than their fair share of books and movies. Temple Grandin is the first time that Grandin's life has been portrayed with quite this much flair and scope, but she's not been exactly underexposed in the media world.

The challenge with Temple Grandin is that her story revolves around a subject that is increasingly distant to most people in our society: Cattle ranching and slaughterhouses. Urban dwellers just think of their meat as appearing magically on store shelves, rather than being the product of a long trip from ranch to feedlot to slaughterhouse to store. This film does a nice job putting into perspective what the cattle industry looked like when Temple Grandin found it, how hard she had to work to change it, and the results of her efforts. Along the way, it touches on her difficulty growing up at a time when autism was especially misunderstood, and her family's efforts to support her growth and development. At its weakest moments, Temple Grandin plays a bit like something from the Lifetime network, pushing your emotional buttons because it can. The best moments are when, through the inspired eye of the Director, we get a sense of how Grandin actual viewed the world. Of course, it's an interpretation, but an effective one. The emotionally charged parts of the film aren't all overwrought, but a little goes a long way.

In a nutshell, Temple Grandin revolutionized the way cattle are processed by "seeing" like a cow, because of her autistic sense of the world. Her accomplishments from a business perspective were about efficiency, but the film shows Temple Grandin aiming for more respect and dignity in her efforts to reshape her industry. You know from the beginning that she'll succeed, but the film does a great job reflecting the difficulties faced throughout Grandin's life; from the beginning of her life, when it was recommended to her mother that she be institutionalized, through controversy surrounding her self-treatment methods in college, to garden variety chauvinism in a male-dominated business. Against these odds, Temple Grandin succeeded, winning out at every turn because of her confidence in herself and her piercing intellect. The distinct gift she possesses is really celebrated here, and this truly is a story worth telling. The only thing wanting in this package is more time spent focusing on real-world footage of Grandin, seeing as how she is a contemporary figure with loads of media exposure. In the end, what's here is well worth seeking out.