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Rating:  - Aside from being a little mentally ill, she's pretty normal
Benny (Aidan Quinn) & Joon (Mary Stuart Masterson) are brother and sister. Benny has been taking care of his mentally ill sister for quite some time, since they were orphaned. He keeps his own personal life on hold, since taking care of Joon complicates things so much. Benny has a hard time keeping housekeepers because of Joon's erratic behavior. Joon inevitably takes a disliking to them and drives them away. What was wrong with the latest?
Joon: She was given to fits of semi-precious metaphors.
Benny: The woman is a housekeeper, Joon, not an English professor.
Benny does have a group of buddies that get together and play poker. They make unusual bets, like for salad shooters, or soap on a rope--slightly used. Benny loses, and has to take in Sam (Johnny Depp), who has been staying with his cousin.
Sam is very strange, illiterate, and obsessed with films. He is especially obsessed with silent films, like those of Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd. He dresses like Buster Keaton, and performs perfect imitations of silent film comedy routines. He also memorizes lines from more recent films, like a slasher film about prom night, Prom Night Mutilator. He recognizes Ruthie (Julianne Moore), the waitress, as an actress from the film. She had gone to Hollywood, but now has given up on her career. A romance blooms between her and Benny, but Benny feels like he can't get involved because of Joon's mental illness. He doesn't notice another romance blooming right under his nose, between Sam and Joon.
Benny & Joon is a cute little movie, but it doesn't really work. Johnny Depp does a surprisingly good job with the silent comedy routines, but that's not enough to carry the film. Perhaps if he was cast in a Buster Keaton biopic, like Robert Downey Jr. playing Charlie Chaplin, it might have worked. Or if the preposterous plot and strange character was juxtaposed with a dull suburban milieu, with tract homes that all look the same except for different shades of pastel, as in Edward Scissorhands, it would have worked. But Jeremiah S. Chechik is no Tim Burton, and his vision wasn't compelling enough for me to want to suspend disbelief.
There were also some missed opportunities. William H. Macy played an agent who was going to audition Sam to put him on some kind of performing circuit. He never auditions, and nothing is made of this. Also, Macy could have provided a rival for Benny, then there could have been a little love triangle, generating a little more tension in their romance. I know that William H. Macy is hardly a threat, but that would have been all the more bitter for Benny if he lost out to him. The one small scene with Macy does have Ruthie making an unlikely appearance, and there is actually a little spark between them. I think that was supposed to be the idea, but it was dropped like a hot potato.
I really like Julianne Moore, but she was never utilized to the fullest. She did the best she could with the material at hand. Given the right film she is a red-headed stick of dynamite.
Depp is a very versatile actor, and he is always interesting, but that can't save the film. He did his own stunts, or comedy routines, like the dancing bread rolls gag from Charles Chaplin's The Gold Rush, or the hat trick from Harold Lloyd's Hey There! You might want to watch this film just to see him, but he is so much better in other vehicles, or at least the other vehicles are so much better...
Mary Stuart Masterson does an adequate job of portraying mental illness, and also shows the creative and quirky side of her personality. She paints, and her own paintings were used in the film. She has all of the good lines:
Joon: Some cultures are defined by their relationship to cheese.
Joon: Having a Boo Radley moment, are we?
Mary Stuart Masterson asked that the song "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" (by the Proclaimers) be used in this film. There is a video of it tacked onto the end. I like those crazy Scottish twins, and their earnest hit single. I like MSM too, but that's not enough to save this film from imploding from terminal cuteness.
Movie Connections for Benny & Joon and the actors therein:
To Kill a Mockingbird (Collector's Edition) (1962) it seems I just wrote a review recently with a Boo Radley moment. Oh, yeah. A band named the Boo Radley's did a song for the John Cusack film, Say Anything. Boo was the scary neighbor played by a young Robert Duvall.
The Harold Lloyd Comedy Collection Vols. 1-3 Hey There! & Girl Shy (1918) Harold Lloyd inspired some of the stunts in B&J
The Art of Buster Keaton (The General / Sherlock, Jr. / Our Hospitality / The Navigator / Steamboat Bill Jr. / College / Three Ages / Battling Butler / Go West / The Saphead / Seven Chances / 21 Short Films) Buster Keaton inspired Sam's look and demeanor in B&J.
The Chaplin Collection, Vol. 1 (Modern Times / The Great Dictator / The Gold Rush / Limelight) Charlie Chaplin also inspired B&J.
Savage Grace (2007) .... I would love to see Julianne Moore as Barbara Baekeland. Is it on DVD yet?
Far from Heaven (2002) .... Moore is far from heaven as Cathy Whitaker, trapped in a loveless marriage.
The Big Lebowski (1998) .... Julianne is Maude Lebowski, and this film is a cult classic from the Cohen Brothers.
Boogie Nights (1997) .... Amber Waves is yet another knock out performance from Moore.
Edward Scissorhands (Widescreen Anniversary Edition) (1990) .... Depp was Edward Scissorhands, and Winona Ryder, Vincent Price, and director Tim Burton made this film a classic.
Blow (Infinifilm Edition) (2001) .... Depp played George Jung.
Desperately Seeking Susan (1985) .... Aidan Quinn was Dez, who was desperately seeking Susan (Madonna).
Sam: Tapioca?
Rating:  - Benny and Joon DVD
This is a wonderful movie. It arrived within a few days in perfect condition and was packaged with care to the contents. We are very pleased and would recommend this seller.
Rating:  - Not very realistic, but Depp is very effective none-the-less...
You'll never hear me say that `Benny & Joon' is a perfect film, but you will hear me say that it is a good one, one that I personally enjoy very much. Do I think that it accurately portrays the handicaps of a mental illness? No, I do not. But, keeping in perspective that this is a `quote-unquote' family comedy you don't really expect it to portray the mentally ill perfectly. To me, `Benny & Joon' is less a film about mental handicaps and more a film about family relationships; and in that respect it works just fine.
The film tells the story of Benny and Joon, brother and sister, who live together. Their parents are deceased (or so I would gather) and so they have each other, and that's about it. That is until Sam comes to town. The strange cousin of one of Benny's poker buddies, Sam winds up staying in Benny's house when Joon loses a poker hand. Sam turns out to be the best thing for Joon, and ultimately for Benny as well, for he teaches them both valuable lessons about life, love and relationships.
The basic premise of the film is highly preposterous when you think about it. There is no way that a man in his right frame of mind would leave his mentally ill sister in the care of a complete stranger (especially one as eccentric as Sam). It took me a minute to take this film seriously when I first realized that that was where this story was going, but the performances are so heartfelt (I'm tempted to say this is Depp as his very finest) that it elevates the material and allows the audience to connect and care about what they are watching.
Of these performances, Depp is the surefire standout. As Sam he is endearing, intriguing and all around entertaining. Depp delivers one of his finest comedic performances to date here, in my opinion surpassing that of his fan favorite `Jack Sparrow'. As Sam, Depp is genuine and sincere; likable and charming and all around a great comedic hero. Aidan Quinn is superb as Benny, the overprotective older brother. His reactions towards Sam and really everything involving his sister is genuine, you can see that. That is why I say it is better to look at this as a film about sibling relationships because the way he protects his sister is the way that any `good' brother in that sort of `family' situation (diseased parents) would react, having officially taken over as a guardian. I was a little disappointed with Mary Stuart Masterson's performance at first, but as the movie progressed and I realized that I should not be too concerned with how realistic the mental illness translates I began to appreciate her performance. The script doesn't flesh out her disorder to any real satisfactory degree and so when she has her little tantrums it can seem out of place and unwarranted since the scene before she was acting more `normal' than her brother.
Just a little note on Julianne Moore - in all seriousness, nothing more than a throwaway role, although her characters cinematic background lay scene to some of Depp's funniest lines.
Regardless of your feelings on its accuracy, there is no denying that `Benny & Joon' has a quirky sense of tenderness that is bound to touch your heart. As the film draws to a close and Sam tells Benny "I used to look up to you; but now I can't look at you" your heart will break, and that is a good sign of how effective Depp is in this role. Sure, this is not Depp's best film (`Ed Wood' anyone) but it is his finest performance.
Rating: - absolutely wonderful!!!
I would recommend this film to anyone, not just Johnny Depp fans. It is wonderful and he is a true artist. Dealing with the mentally ill is never easy, on film or in real life but it is dealt with here. The difficulty of understanding how people feel and what they need. Mary Stuart Masterson was probably born for this part and this film no doubt, was supposed to make her a big star. Sadly for her, being in a film with Mr. Depp did not help her. He is so much more talented than anyone else, that he dominates the action and makes the rest of the characters look like, 'also featuring' extras. Julianne Moore has the worst lines ever and I did feel for her but Johnny Depp's 'Sam' is so much more interesting, that you hardly pay attention. There are also many actors in smaller roles, who will go on to greater things. Oliver Platt, William H. Macy, Danny Hedaya and Aidan Quinn, as Benny, barely manages, once again over-shadowed by our boy Johnny. Yes, I am an intense Johnny Depp fan but he has made a lot of terrible movies. This one is great. There are a few scenes that parents might not care for their young children to see but the PG rating is just fine. Buy it today!
Rating: - This film lives or dies on its ability to charm you
Benny (Aidan Quinn) is a mechanic who, since the death of their parents, has been the caretaker for his schizophrenic sister Joon (Mary Stewart Masterson), a job that has become increasingly difficult. They are obliged to take in the quirky Sam (Johnny Depp), and love blossoms between the two soulful oddballs.
For this movie to work, you have to love these relentlessly eccentric characters, and, unfortunately, I couldn't love them enough. The horrendous pitfalls that go along with mental illness are shown just enough to provide some complications in the narrative, but the filmmakers clearly had their sights set on a happy ending right from the beginning, and they were going to let nothing get in the way. There are some egregious lapses in logic that are required to make this story go in the direction the filmmakers want. For example, there is serious debate about whether Joon would be better off living in a group home (where she would have constant supervision) or in her own apartment (where she would be mostly unsupervised, even though there would be a friend living in the same building). These choices are opposite ends of a spectrum, not roughly equivalent alternatives that a responsible mental health professional would present to a harried caretaker.
There are pleasures to be found here, mostly notably Johnny Depp's extraordinary performance, but you have to be charmed into forgetting the real world first.
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