The Fundamentals of Caring is a 2016 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Rob Burnett, it is based on Jonathan Evison's novel The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving. The movie tells the story of Trevor, an 18 year old teen who suffers from muscular dystrophy. He doesn’t have a lot of fun in his life and his daily routine includes: eating waffles, watching TV every day and going to the park once a week.
On the other hand, we have Ben, a nice guy who is having many issues in his life: he’s getting divorced and his career as a writer didn’t have success. On top of that he doesn’t have a job. He refuses to move on and he doesn’t want to sign the divorce documents because he thinks he is not ready and he isn’t writing anything anymore. But he needs a job, so he decides to take six weeks course to be a caregiver because he needs the money.
Without any experience in the medical field, Ben gets his first client: Elsa, an office manager at a bank who was looking for someone who could take care of her son Trevor.
Trevor has a strict routine for each day and he never leaves the house, but everything changes when Ben takes him on a road trip to visit the American roadside attractions. Along the way they’ll discover their true selves and learn the value of their friendship full of sarcasm and life lessons.
This is the second film directed by Rob Burnett, best known for being the executive producer of Late Show with David Letterman, the balance between dark comedy and a poignant story takes this movie to the next level. The casting was perfect, with great performances. You can see Paul Rudd as Ben, Craig Roberts as Trevor and Selena Gomez as Dot, a girl who turns into Trevor’s love interest. These actors share an unique chemistry on screen; it doesn’t look like they’re acting but living their story and maybe that’s why this movie is so fresh and natural.
Even though we have seen similar films before; I would say that the director made an incredible job mixing drama and comedy. This is not one of those movies in which you know that something terrible is going to happen to the character and you cry from the beginning to the end, no. There’s no a tragic ending, but a happy journey.
The Fundamentals of Caring, teaches us that we can be physically paralyzed like Trevor, or emotionally paralyzed like Ben, but the most important thing is being surrounded by supportive people who are able to make us see that we can make our dreams come true.
PHOTO CREDITS : MOVIE ; THE FUNDAMENTALS OF CARING