Mission To Lars
From the current issue of Clash.
When journalist Kate Spicer and her filmmaker brother Will realised that they needed to strengthen their relationship with their middle sibling Tom, they hatched an epic plan: to help Tom to achieve his longstanding ambition of meeting Metallica’s drummer Lars Ulrich. This already slightly troublesome plan is far more challenging than it would seem, for Tom has Fragile X Syndrome, a form of autism, which means that his symptoms include a need for routine, difficulties with confusion and hypersensitivity to noise. While Kate and Will are aware that this mission won’t be easy, it proves to be harder than they anticipated from the very outset when Tom refuses to leave his care home in Devon.
Metallica feature prominently (and the occasionally maligned Ulrich comes across well), but this isn’t a film about the band – it’s a story of an unusual family relationship in which Kate and Will rediscover Tom’s charms and the daily challenges that Fragile X causes. Mission To Lars is an entertaining and emotional quest that also captures a rarely seen angle to the band / fan dynamic. You could, of course, trust in Lemmy’s succinct review: “I cried.”
