One last review for today of Simon Birch, that small film with the giant heart.
The Dread Pirate Roberts here again with a review of last nights screening of A Prayer for Owen Mea...oh that's right, that's the title of the movie Moriarty must have seen. I saw Simon Birch. It's "Suggested by" the book by John Irving but not having read it, I took no preconceived notions into the movie and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
First my day, I was up at 6:30am to play some golf and then really didn't have anything else until the preview at 7:45pm (such is the strenuous life of a pirate). Now, I didn't know if this was a free preview or one of those deals where you pay for the preview movie and get to see another for free afterwards. So Buttercup and I got to the local Megaplex early to judge the situation and found that Simon Birch was to be followed by Armageddon at 10:05pm. Sweeeeet! Naturally we had already seen Armageddon, but since we loved it, we decided the deal was well worth it even if we hated Simon Birch.
We got into the theater early. Actually we were first there so we had the pick of locations. No line, no eager throng. This didn't bode well for the movie. Now, neither of us was high on seeing this movie and if it hadn't been a preview, we probably wouldn't have bothered. I've never read A Prayer for Owen Meany and, therefore, had no fond memories of this obviously charming book. All I knew was what I had read on AICN and in the EW Fall Movie Preview.
I was enchanted by this movie. It's the kind of movie where you're laughing out loud one minute and crying the next. The whole audience was moved (the theater did eventually fill up) and if word of mouth gets out, this may be a surprise hit. Of course, I can't speak for those of you who have read the book. But, if Moriarty's review is any clue you might not like this movie because it isn't faithful to the book. Personally I think that's bull. I think people should see a movie and rate it based on it's own merits and not on it's comparison to the material it's loosely based on.
The directing was fine no matter what has been said. I despised the Old Men movies. That doesn't mean I hate everything done by the man. This movie had the light touch reserved for coming of age movies while touching on issues not usually mentioned in such flicks. Issues of faith, religion, and family were woven nicely and none of the elements seemed heavy handed.
The acting was top-notch all around. The two boys, Ian Michael Smith and Joseph Mazello were great together. They seemed like best friends. You could see the bond that had formed between them and it made sense. Mazello has been good in everything I've seen him in and doesn't disappoint now. And Smith is a treasure. It would be easy to use his stature as a pity point or a sick joke (and there are times when the movie veers dangerously close to that), but in the end, Smith's portrayal puts a stop to that. When the character starts to turn towards caricature, his lines and line readings remind us that this is just a kid. Oliver Platt as always is solid in a role I wanted more of. And Ashley Judd is very believable in her short time as the loving mother of Joe (Mazello) and the semi-surrogate of Simon (Smith). My one problem among the actors is David Straitharn. His character wavers wildly from unsympathetic bad guy priest to mushy nice guy. I usually love Straitharn (and this could be a writing problem more than an acting problem) but this character just didn't feel true. One final acting note: Jim Carrey is in the movie for maybe five minutes and does fine but unspectacular work in framing scenes and voiceover. He never detracts from the story which is all I ask of voiceovers.
The plot is at times very heavy. As I mentioned before, faith in God is a major theme. Within the first five minutes we learn that Simon dies at age 12 and that he is responsible for the death of his best friend's mother. If you've already heard this and are upset that now the movie is ruined for you, don't be. It's total exposition and the knowledge takes nothing away from the movie. At times it was so funny that we had to strain to hear the lines over the laughter in the theater and at other times the sobs among the patrons were just as audible. And it wasn't like in a bad movie where people laugh when they shouldn't. There were many, many funny parts in this movie. (the best of which being the christmas pageant mentioned in Moriarty's review. I don't know if he doesn't like humor with his pathos but my feeling is if you can't laugh, you can't cry. This scene is golden). The climax was telegraphed as was the answer to Joe's big question about his father's identity. But figuring it out didn't ruin the movie. It keeps it from classic status but that's all.
The music seemed right for this kind of movie. It was almost all oldies and, like Stand By Me, they just fit with the coming of age aspects of the story.
Overall, I would heartily recommend this movie especially to those who haven't read the book. If you want a good, funny, sad movie for the family, this is as good as I've seen in a long time. If The mighty is that much better than this, I can't wait to see it, too.
One final note, in Armageddon, does anyone know why there were machine guns on the armadillos? Just wondering.
Well, back to plundering and pillaging. The DPR out.
