Watching "Riding the Bus with My Sister" was a life-changing experience for me. Before it started I was a dyed-in-the-wool hardcore atheist, but now, having watched it, I believe Satan is real. There's simply no other explanation for the existence of this cinematic turd. Everyone involved should be deeply ashamed. It made me feel sorry for actors in general, because who else would be desperate and needy enough to be seen publicly humiliating themselves like this? People do some strange things for money, but being in this outdoes any stunt Fear Factor challenged its contestants with. "Go on, we dare you to be in a Hallmark TV movie with Rosie O'Donnell playing a retard." "Uh, no thanks." Anjelica Huston proves directorial talent isn't necessarily hereditary, but honestly what could she do with this material (other than the smart thing, which would have been run like hell in the opposite direction)? Rosie O'Donnell is horrible as a rule, but in "Riding the Bus with My Sister" she is the face that launched a thousand nightmares. I am afraid to go to sleep tonight. During one of the many sappy Hallmark commercials peppered throughout the broadcast, a woman visits her newly independent Downs syndrome brother. He has a quiet dignity and speaks well. Rosie O'Donnell, on the other hand, plays an obnoxious braying freak. But she's not alone. It was an interesting choice to include nary a sympathetic or even mildly likable character. Maybe Richard T. Jones's Jesse, but only because I like that actor and felt bad he was in this. Really bad.

And I never thought I'd write these words, but there's actually something worse than the output of Nicholas Sparks. The writing, the acting, the everything is horrendous. A+ for homogeneity, I suppose.

Like many of the other posters here I tuned in for "the wrong reasons." I did not want my heart warmed (thought heartburn was resultant); I wanted laughs. I did get them, but the pain became almost unbearable midway through. Like a marathon of masochism, my wife and I made it all the way to the bitter, completely devoid of revelation end—a true endurance test that left us questioning our sanity. We clearly lack good sense.

And actually, it sort of deserves two ratings: 1 out of 10 in terms of genuine merit, but 10 out of 10 on the "so bad it'll blow your mind" scale.

Can we start taking up a collection to jettison Rosie into space? Please? Side note: 3 cast members of the remake of "Dawn of the Dead" were in this. Go Canada!

Additional side note: having just attended the Diane Arbus retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I wonder if the decision to make Andie MacDowell's character a photographer who gets a solo show featuring shots of her retarded sister was a misguided homage to Arbus and her "Untitled" series of photos of retarded women. Nah, I'm giving credit where credit isn't due.

...Evidently Rosie subscribes to the "worst stereotypes of mentally handicapped persons" school of acting. She ***** up her fists and hold them close to my chest, like some gigantic flightless bird. She juts her lower chin out, her face frozen with about as much depth of feeling as an extra in a George Romero "Living Dead" movie...and her voice. It is not an exaggeration to say, if it were used against Iraqi prisoners, it would be at the top of the Human Rights violations list. This combination croak / screech - Gilford Godfrey, part Pee-Wee Herman, and part "Which Way Did He Go, George?" - is in fact a talent; neither my wife nor I could actually reproduce this noise she was making. Mentally challenged folk do not look like this, do not talk like this. Her performance insults them.

She is an insult to acting. Watching 10 seconds of her insulted my intelligence as well as assaulted my senses. The actors who worked with her should have their therapy bills covered by the studio.