Identify a movie about an autistic woman learning to speak?

A man and a woman work together to teach another, young woman to speak, or are caring for her. Maybe the young woman is autistic. All I can remember is the woman saying "razor" and "mirror" and something that sounded like "check-a may-may." I thought that Jodie Foster was in it (as the woman learning to speak)...maybe someone that looks like her? Would have been from the 1980s or early 90s.

single word requests - What is it called when someone does an action they don't fully understand?

I think cargo-culting might be an appropriate phrase. I see it used often in the programming world but the concept is applicable anywhere.

Here's the history of the phrase: Cargo cult

Metaphorical uses of the term

The term "cargo cult" has been used metaphorically to describe an
attempt to recreate successful outcomes by replicating circumstances
associated with those outcomes, although those circumstances are
either unrelated to the causes of outcomes or insufficient to produce
them by themselves. In the former case, this is an instance of the
post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy.

The metaphorical use of "cargo cult" was popularized by physicist
Richard Feynman at a 1974 Caltech commencement speech, which later
became a chapter in his book Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!, where
he coined the phrase "cargo cult science" to describe activity that
had some of the trappings of real science (such as publication in
scientific journals) but lacked a basis in honest experimentation.

What was the first live-action movie to feature a talking animal?

Predating all of the above, but not necessarily considered features (if the length of the film is of concern) the Dogville Comedies featured talking dogs in a variety of situations.
These shorts began being shown in 1929, not long after the advent of sound in motion pictures.
These can often be seen on TCM, or you can can see an example here on Youtube.

Idiom or expression for criticizing people who ignore you right after getting what they wanted/ were after

There is an idiom in Persian that literally says: "(to be ignored right after) somebody's donkey has crossed or passed (over) the bridge"

We use it in situations where someone (now feels relieved and) ignores or treats us much differently after:

• We have helped them to overcome or reach a solution to a problem, but as soon as they feel relieved, they start treating us as if we are now strangers or even annoying to them! (i.e. They totally forget the help they received.)




• We have provided them with something they needed (like a piece of information or news, a confirmation, an acceptance or agreement, money, etc), but since their need has been met, they don't think twice about ignoring us.

As you know, donkeys are stubborn and when they perceive danger, you can't force them to do anything. So I think the origin of this idiom might have been like this: someone's donkey refrained from crossing the bridge, so they asked a friend to help them get the donkey over the bridge, but after being on the other side, they forgot about their friend or treated them ungratefully.

Example scenarios:

1. Your friend calls and desperately asks you to lend a large sum of money otherwise they will go to jail. They promise to pay back the sum in two months. You lend the money and they say you are their best friend.
   After three months they still haven't paid you back. You need the money, so you call and ask them when they would repay it. They promise the following month! A month goes by and still no sign. So you call them again on the 6th month. They get angry and scold you about why you have called them over that trivial (!!) sum of money and ask you not to waste their precious time with these annoying phone calls since they would definitely pay you back as soon as possible! At this point you say:

"Okay, you are talking like this because your donkey has already passed over the bridge and you feel safe and relieved now, but are you sure it was your last problem??! I will never help you anymore even if you are about to be executed!"

2. Joe and Jane have been dating for five years, during all those years Joe's behavior has been exemplary; he really wanted to marry her (so he was just acting according to Jane's wishes and requests).
   After Jane accepted his proposal of marriage and they got married, Joe started to show his other side and gradually ignored Jane's requests. So Jane told him sarcastically:

"Oh, yeah! now that you've got my "yes", you are ignoring me and the reason is clear: your donkey has just crossed over the bridge!"

Is there any equivalent idiom, expression or proverb in English to criticize such people?

Who hired Malcolm Crowe?

No one hired Malcolm Crowe to look after Cole. Over the course of the movie it is established that Cole can see dead people and that reason the dead haven't moved on is because they have something they still need to see accomplished on earth (for example, the little girl who's mother had poisoned her wanted her father to know the truth).

In all the pictures of Cole there is always a white streak around his head to signify that dead people that were always around him. Though it is never specifically spelled out, it is suggested that both Cole and Vincent (the patient that shot Malcolm) are inundated with the spirits of the dead. I don't think the dead even understand that they are drawn to the people with this gift, it just happens - like steel to a magnet.

Thus, Malcolm was drawn to Cole (instinctively) and as he (Malcolm) did not realize he was dead, he automatically fell into the roles and rites of his job - thus assuming that he was there to help Cole as a therapist. What was really happening though is that he was dead and had not moved on because of his guilt about not helping Vincent etc.

If you watch carefully, after Malcolm is shot nobody speaks to him other than Cole for the rest of the movie.

Literary term for an obvious understatement to emphasize excess

There's litotes - a figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite. But that would be exemplified by "Bill Gates isn't doing too bad".

OP's "doing well for himself" is just plain understatement. If OP really wants a literary term, there's meiosis, but it's a very rare literary term these days (I have a degree in literature, but until I read Robusto's answer here I only knew this word in its biological cell division sense).

For anyone who wants to dig deeper, OED says it's from Gr. µείωσις lessening, f. µειοῦν, to lessen, f. µείων less. It's used in the "cell division" sense because the two "daughter" cells each have half as many chromosomes as the "parent".

Personally I'd avoid meiosis for rhetorical understatement. It's English, Jim, but not as we know it.

grammar - How to pied-pipe "only in respect to which ... by ... rule"?

I'm trying to pied-pipe the last dependent clause for simplicity, following Prof Lawler's comment:

...but not to legislative facts that will produce adverse consequences to them [//]
only in respect to which[,] they are members of a class adversely affected by the legislative rule.

Please advise on, correct, or improve my attempt? Please show all steps and thought processes.

Abbreviate legislative facts ... to them by *.
Then the present clause becomes:

1. but not to *, only in respect to which[,] they are members of a class adversely affected by the legislative rule


2. = but not to *, which they are members of a class adversely affected by the legislative rule only in respect to.


3. = but not, they are members of a class adversely affected by the legislative rule only in respect to *.

He later remarked:

Pied piping doesn't affect adverbs, so switching around only is on your own hook. Only has a focus and has its own rules about where it may appear (basically right before the focus word, or right before a constituent containing the focus word)...