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The Fundamentals of Caring

Nolan Mendonca

HIS 215

Professor Hewitt

December 8, 2021
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For centuries, media has represented disability in various lights. From movies to

photography to television shows, the way we as a society read these interpretations have a big

impact on how disability is seen. In “Seeing the Disabled” by Rosemarie Garland Thomson, she

discusses how media has portrayed disabled people in different ways through different rhetorics.

The Fundamentals of Caring is a film that is just one example that had particularly stood out to

me when it comes to the topic of disability. There are two parts in the film that we can analyze

through the help of Thomson’s writing.

The Fundamentals of Caring is a Netflix original comedy-drama film that came out in

June 24, 2016 and is directed by Rob Burnett. This 1 hour and 37-minute film contains some of

the biggest stars in Hollywood like Craig Roberts, Paul Rudd, and Selena Gomez. Rudd plays the

main character, Ben, who is a retired writer after his son had died in a tragic car accident. After

training to be a caregiver for 6 weeks, he goes out searching for a new job and finds a position to

be Roberts’ character, Trevor, new caregiver. While doing this, Ben is constantly avoiding his

wife’s legal team to serve him divorce papers because he cannot handle letting go of his previous

life. Trevor is from England and has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) which is a muscle

disorder which progressively makes your muscle weaker, and he uses a power wheelchair. His

mother has informed Ben that Trevor has 7 to 10 more years to live and has an extensive routine

that he must complete every day that include stretching a lot of his muscles, taking medications,

and helping him basic human functions like using the bathroom and eating. At first Ben is

struggling to understand Trevor’s dark humor relating to his illness and his closeness to death,

but then he finally catches on and they start to create a close friendship through their share in

sarcasm. Since Trevor has DMD, his mother refuses to let him out of the house, so he spends

most of his time watching television or reading articles. While watching TV, Trevor opens up
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about his fascination with the United States and how he has always wanted to see the World’s

Deepest Pit which is all the way across the country. Eventually, Ben convinces Trevor’s mom to

let them drive across the country and they make a couple stops along the way. They meet a girl

named Dot played by Selena Gomez who Trevor ends up having a huge crush on and she had ran

away from her dad’s house. They also meet a pregnant woman named Peaches who is stuck on

the side of the road because her car had just broken down. They create a wholesome bond

between the four of them and end up coming together when Peaches delivers her baby at the

World’s Deepest Pit. The movie ends with Dot going with back with her dad, Peaches going

back home with her newly born baby, Ben finally signing his divorce papers, and Trevor finally

gets to experience peeing while standing up with Ben’s help. The closing scene is Ben writing

his newest novel about Trevor and how he doesn’t care for Trevor anymore, but they remain

close friends.

When I first discovered The Fundamentals of Caring, I was in high school and I had just

started thinking about being a special needs teacher, so when I saw the film on Netflix, I was

instantly intrigued. The film had just come out after another film that featured a disabled main

character called Me Before You, which angered the disability community and saw the film as

portraying disabled people as a burden to their families and caregivers. With this in mind,

Burnett knew that he did not want to focus on the actual disability of Trevor, but his dreams and

the quality of friendship he creates with Ben. Especially because the film is based on a true story

about a boy named Case Levinson who attended the premier of the film and Burnett also created

a space for him and Levinson to discuss with kids about DMD. Burnett also wanted to capture

that when someone is in a wheelchair, it does not define who they are as people and that they are
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just as much of a human. He does this by using the rhetorics Thomson had talked about, but

Burnett did it in a different way.

Using the reading from Thomson, we can elaborate on a couple of scenes of the movie

that really shows the perspective of society when they see Trevor. The first scene that is very

early in the movie is when Ben is being interviewed by Trevor’s mom and Trevor comes out in

his power wheelchair pretending to have seizure symptoms and snaps right out of it when his

mom asks him to stop. The camera pans to Ben with a shocked look on his face and then to

Trevor with a slight smirk. When the film shows this scene, it shows how disabled people feel

when they have been seen at first glance and then when Trevor snapped out of the act, he showed

that not all disabled people that are in wheelchairs act this way and that it is just a misconception.

In a way, this scene shed light on the discrimination disabled people have and also showed how

Trevor has a great sense of humor which gives him the “human” characteristic. It also is in

correlation to what Thomson was talking about in her piece about sentimental rhetoric in

disability. In Thomson’s writing she explains “the sentimental places the disabled figure below

the viewer, in the posture of the sympathetic victim or helpless sufferer needing protection or

succor” (341). The way the film uses the sentimental rhetoric is almost like they are making fun

of the people that pity disabled people. The fact that Trevor wanted to give Ben a first impression

of not only his humor, but how he feels society sees him in a wheelchair is a shocking way the

two start their friendship, especially since Trevor would be relying on Ben. It also shocks the

audience because if any abled person did it that would be offensive, but when Trevor is doing it

he is assuming that is how Ben will see him just like the rest of society.

The other scene that I wanted to discuss is at the end when Trevor and Ben make it to the

World’s Deepest Pit. Earlier in the film, Ben asked Trevor what his dreams were and Trevor
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answered by saying he wants to feel the joy of peeing standing up, sarcastically of course. Trevor

has some truth behind the answer but does not think anything of it because they had just met.

Later in the movie, Ben, Trevor, and Dot all help Peaches deliver her baby, along with some

strangers and afterwards everyone parts their ways. Trevor, being a sexually frustrated teen, is

sad that Dot has left with her dad after she had kissed him. Ben notices his sadness and spots the

ambulance that had come for Peaches and runs out of the car to ask him for a little help. The

paramedics let Ben grab a stretcher and puts Trevor onto it and brings him to the edge of the

cliff. Ben unzips Trevor’s pants and he finally gets to live out his dream of peeing standing up.

They both scream and chant with excitement, while the camera is doing a full circle around them

with happy music in the back. Thomson talks about the wondrous rhetoric “in which the viewer

occupies the position of the ordinary, looking up in awe at the difference framed as a distinction

by the wonder” (340). Just like the previous example, I think the director is making fun of the

way society has viewed disabled people doing normal things. If an abled man were to pee

standing up, it would be seen as completely normal, but because Trevor is disabled, it is heroic

and something you would never think he could do since most of his muscles cannot physically

hold him up. I like that Burnett is acknowledging this in a light-hearted way and puts the image

of disability in a comedic yet normal way.

The film The Fundamentals of Caring by Rob Burnett connects with the reading, “Seeing

the Disabled”, by almost mocking the rhetorics that are mentioned. This film is just one of many

that try to approach disability in a positive light and fortunately the film received positive notes

from the disabled community. However, not all media knows how to properly portray disability

and there is always more than one interpretation and can affect the way society sees disability.
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References

Burnett,Rob. (2016). The Fundamentals of Caring.The Worldwide Pants; Levantine films

Garland Thomson, R. (n.d.). "Seeing the Disabled". Perusall. Retrieved December 9, 2021, from
https://app.perusall.com/courses/2021fa-history-of-disability-hist-215-01/seeing-the-
disabled-by-rosemarie-garland-thomson?assignmentId=LeYu9Yd3DbyaRNqSi&part=1.