GIGI & NATE Explores Disability, Caregiving, and the Importance of Family: ‘Caregivers [Are] Like Oil On The Wheels of Life’
By Movieguide® Staff
GIGI & NATE is a new family-friendly movie based on the true story of a disabled 18-year-old who receives care and love from an unlikely source, a capuchin monkey.
A portion of Movieguide®’s review reads:
GIGI & NATE is a life-affirming drama about a young man whose life changes after an accident. After college-bound Nate gets water in his brain from a cliff jump, he gets meningitis and is left a quadriplegic. His family rallies together to care for him. Nate’s mother decides to get him a small service monkey named Gigi. Just as the bond between Nate and Gigi is formed, an animal activist petitions the government to ban these types of service monkeys.
Actress Marcia Gay Harden, who plays Nate’s mother, Claire Gibson, in the movie, said that GIGI & NATE is an homage to the sacrifice caregivers offer to people across the world.
“I will say, all across our nation mothers typically are caregiving,” Harden told Movieguide® in a recent interview. “Not just for their own children, but oftentimes their parents… it falls to us to do that and my mother also passed from alzheimer’s so I understand caring for a disabled person and it uses every part of your heart.”
“You want to give every part of your heart, but it’s also exhausting and so you have this kind of battle between what you’re doing and what you’re giving, but then there’s this little part of you that’s like, ‘Oh, I just want time for me,’ and you don’t have it. You have to make peace with that,” she continued. “But at the end of the day, when you see, like in this movie, you see your child triumph and go on to do the things he wants to do it’s a joy.
“Caregivers, they’re like the oil on the wheels of life right now, we’re keeping it going and it’s incredible,” she added.
Nick Hamm, the director and producer of GIGI & NATE explained that for Nate, care comes in different forms.
“There’s a great line in the movie where the mother and the father are running out of money and the father says to the mother, to Marcia, ‘Look, why don’t you go and get a job?’ And the great line in the movie is Marcia says, ‘I have a job, it just doesn’t pay,'” Hamm told Movieguide®. “She’s spending her time looking after after her disabled son.”
“Now this movie is about giving to people who are disabled a level of care and a level of understanding and most importantly a level of independence,” he continued. “Which is what disabled people want more than anything else. They do not necessarily want somebody 24-7 looking at them, they want to be independent. In that sense, if we can embrace a culture where we can work with these animals and these animals can benefit from us then surely to God we’re in a place which is wonderfully open and progressive and wonderfully futuristic and that’s where we should be going and this movie is about that debate.”
Unfortunately, in many North American states, primates are banned as service animals.
“You cannot have primates as a service animal in most states in North America and it’s getting worse and worse,” he explained. “It’s a crying shame, because America was absolutely ahead of the game in this in this research, in the development of these working practices, and the ability for people to get rehabilitation through working with animals is enormous.”
He concluded: “America was leading the world in this and to close this down because of puritanical attitudes which are not progressive and which are not useful for us as humans progressing and our relationships with animals is a crying shame.”
Movieguide®’s review of GIGI & NATE reads:
GIGI & NATE is a well-made, entertaining movie. It makes good use of a limited budget. GIGI & NATE has a strong Christian, pro-family worldview with prayer and themes of serving others. The movie shows a family’s love for a sick family member and caring for him in the midst of hardship. The movie has some commentary supporting a smaller government, because the government is interfering with Nate’s ownership of Gigi. There’s one scene where Nate goes to a party and drinks, but this is rebuked. GIGI & NATE also has lots of light foul language. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for older children.
Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.
Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.
Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
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