The Horse Boy

No one wants to say that a movie about two parents’ wish to alleviate their son’s autism is a bad idea. But when that wish produces an arduous trek across Mongolia in search of a shaman and when the movie about that trek is called “The Horse Boy,’’ my eyebrows go up. And up they stayed for most of this well-meaning but trying documentary. Parents of autistic children might recognize more than a bit of themselves in Rupert Isaacson and his wife, Kristin Neff, and their struggle to find some tranquillity for their 6-year-old, Rowan. Traditional medical treatments haven’t done much to reduce the intensity of Rowan’s tantrums. But Isaacson takes a detour from what most parents might try. (Full review)