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.