The Black Balloon is a 2008 Australian drama movie about an unusual suburban family in Sydney in the early 1990s. It was directed by Elissa Down and written by Down and Jimmy Jack. It stars Rhys Wakefield as 15 year old Thomas Mollison, Luke Ford as his slightly older brother Charlie, Toni Collette as his pregnant mother Maggie and Erik Thomson as his father Simon, who is in the army. Charlie is mentally retarded, severely autistic, unable to speak, hyperactive, overemotional and has outbursts of inappropriate, sometimes destructive, behaviour. Gemma Ward plays Thomas' girlfriend Jackie Masters.