The Rainbow Kid 2016

Eugene is a young Torontonian whose life feels tightly capped by his diagnosis of Down syndrome, with peers who are often condescending or dismissive. He attends school in a separate room for disabled students, where bullying and indifference from classmates—and from the girl he likes—shape his days. To earn a little money, he does yard work for neighbors, while most of his time is spent at home with his terminally ill mother. To cope with his limited world, Eugene clings to a fantasy about a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, a magical idea that could turn into real video-game money if only he could reach it.

When he learns that his mother faces eviction, Eugene makes a desperate choice: he runs away to rural Northern Ontario, hoping to find enough money to save their home. Tragically, his mother dies soon after his departure, a loss he discovers only after he has already left. On the road, Eugene encounters a string of oddball characters in an economy-starved countryside. He endures a stint with an alcoholic dowser who steals his money, then crosses paths with a burnt-out transvestite former rockstar who now works as a handyman and repairs Eugene’s bike. This enigmatic figure, Elvis Grimes, is abrasive and lewd at first glance, yet his loneliness, identity struggles, and deep depression slowly reveal a more complex person who teaches Eugene about intimate relationships and the rough edges of adult life.

With Elvis’s help—though unable to reach his deceased mother by phone—Eugene presses on, still clinging to the rainbow as a sign that the gold might exist on the far side of it. His journey leads him to Anna, a sunny girl with Down syndrome who lives with her father, a hoarder with a passion for photography and home videos. Eugene is invited to stay the night in Anna’s home, a situation that feels uneasy to him. His suspicions grow when he discovers a hidden webcam among the plushies aimed at Anna’s bed, and he becomes unsettled by Anna’s easy embrace of sexuality and nudity. He ultimately deduces that Anna’s father has used her in a disturbing way—creating child pornography and deceiving Anna about a mother figure watching from afar. Disturbed and disgusted, Eugene and Anna flee into the forest, fearful of being tracked down.

The next morning, they stumble upon a junkyard-like mass grave of wrecked cars. While playing there, a brake failure sends a car careening into a tree, injuring both of them. Eugene suffers only minor injuries, but Anna sustains a concussion and slips into unconsciousness. Desperate to get medical help, Eugene ding-dong-ditches a nearby neighbor and leaves Anna at the doorstep, hoping someone will take her to a hospital. The film leaves Anna’s fate ambiguous, lingering on what comes next for her.

Meanwhile, Eugene finds brief refuge at the home of a kind, nostalgic elderly woman who cherishes keepsakes and shares stories of the past with him. He notices a television alert bearing his own name and face, which triggers a flood of emotion, and the old woman comforts him as he breaks down. The moment is shattered when burglars break in and brutally murder the old woman, oblivious to Eugene’s presence. Enraged by her death, Eugene pursues the criminals, but they trap him into their life of crime, coercing him to beg on the street as a “retarded boy” whose earnings the burglars claim.

The police eventually intervene, revealing Eugene’s innocence in the older woman’s murder. Yet with his mother gone and his intellectual disability, he slips through the cracks of the system, ending up in a group home rather than finding meaningful work. The harsh experience of street life leaves him wary, solitary, and bitter, unable to forge friendships with other disabled adults. He does manage to stand up to a known bully in the group home, telling him to “fuck off” when the bully tries to steal his lime Jell-O. The final image is quiet and somber: while Eugene still holds onto a belief in magic and miracles at the rainbow’s end, the dream of finding the pot of gold feels increasingly distant, and he has begun to adjust to a world where hope is tempered by harsh realities.