"Ripple Effect": Disability, Race, & Relationships

Ruth/Rachel: This is the blog I would like graded for week 8.

There will be spoilers of Ripple Effect in this entry. If reading them will prevent you from watching it, go check out the film first!

The film Ripple Effect follows the life of Amer Atrash, a fashion designer who is going through a crisis in business and in his relationship with his wife and family. Amer believes that his struggles are a payback for a car accident 15 years prior where he hit a pedestrian (Phillip) and thus made him partially paralyzed. In order to end his struggles Amer seeks out Phillip to release his guilt and the burden of him knowing the position he has placed him in.

This film addresses the sexuality of people with disabilities by showing that they do not have sex or are not adequate partners for sex. Amer makes his contact with Phillip by being picked up by Kitty, Phillip's wife, at a bar. Amer follows her home on her invitation in hopes of speaking with Phillip, but he later discovers that Kitty picked him up so that they could have sex. Phillip permits Kitty to have sex with Amer and says that he just wants his wife to be happy. Amer ends up refusing Kitty and she then kicks him out of their home. Kitty's character shows that though she loves her husband and he is her life partner that he is unable to complete her sexual desires. This stereotype and assumption is limiting of people with disabilities and sends a message that they have no need or desire for a sexual relationship and the sexual desires of an able-bodied partner should come first. Kitty also displays an intense hatred to Amer when she discovers that he was the driver in the accident with Phillip and believes he deserves no amends. She really wishes that her partner was not disabled.

Disability is also addressed in the film through Phillip's character. Amer approaches Phillip seeking amends for the wrongs he feels he has done in the accident. Phillip easily provides full forgiveness for Amer, but questions if that is what is really bothering him and shares with Amer how his disability has brought him good things. I was happy to find that Phillip held no resentment to Amer and did not fulfill the Obsessive Avenger stereotype as I expected he would. However, Phillip could possibly be seen as a Saintly Sage. Phillip talks with Amer about his life, the meaning of life in a way that brings Amer solace and closer to enlightenment, assisting the able bodied protagonist and having an ethereal quality. He as well holds no resentment to his wife for sleeping with other men and tells Amer that when the accident happened he was on his way to shoot Kitty for sleeping with someone else. This could be read that the accident was fate stopping Phillip from committing murder, it could also be read as him becoming more saintly by becoming disabled.

Though Phillip could be seen as the Saintly Sage for assisting Amer I think that mostly he is a fairly realistic portrayal of a person's reaction of changing lifestyle and beliefs after a near death experience. Phillip is given the role of a professor and is looked at as intelligent by his pupils and peers. Phillip was a layered character who was defined by more than his disability and I found that refreshing.

One other positive aspect of Ripple Effect is that the two romantic relationships in the film were interracial. Though the relationship between Kitty, who is white and Phillip, who is black, was different they were shown as very much in love and at peace with one another. Amer (who is Middle Eastern) struggled in his relationship with his wife Sherry (who is white) but they are also shown as very in love and as a very realistic relationship with good and bad parts. They were not romanticized tales of passionate "jungle fever" interracial relationships, nor tales of the horror of marrying outside your race. They were complex relationships that existed without regard to race.

Overall I enjoyed Ripple Effect. I felt that it had a compelling story in addition to creating layered characters of color and with disability.

Photos Courtesy of: Ripple Effect

Trailer Courtesy of: Youtube