Saturday, May 9, 2020

Benny & Joon

Movie Name: Benny & Joon
Year of Release: 1993
Director: Jeremiah Chechik
Starring: Johnny Depp, Mary Stuart Masterson, Aidan Quinn, Julianne Moore, Dan Hedaya, Oliver Platt, CCH Pounder, Joe Grifasi, William H. Macy, Liane Curtis, Eileen Ryan
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 5 
Watch it on Amazon

Synopsis and Review:
Jeremiah Chechik's "Benny & Joon" was the director's third feature, following his debut with "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation", which was a considerable hit, whereas his second feature, "Arrive Alive", was terminated while shooting (after 18 days of shooting the production was shut down). "Benny & Joon" is in effect, the second fully released feature of his career, and follows the story of the two siblings in the title. Joon is a young woman, an artist, with some mental issues, while her older brother Benny, is her care taker. He owns and operates a garage, while Joon stays home and works on her art, usually in the care of a housekeeper who keeps an eye on her. Joon is quirky and challenging, resulting in a constant flux of housekeepers. While Benny is contemplating putting her in a group home, the young handsome Sam waltzes into their lives. Eccentric on his own, Sam is inspired by Buster Keaton, and is a cousin of one of Benny's friends. He becomes Joon's new housekeeper, and a relationship between the two of them starts to blossom, with unexpected outcomes.
"Benny & Joon" was one of three releases Johnny Depp had in 1993 (the other two being "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" and "Arizona Dream"), and is now mostly remembered as a film that further cemented his taste in offbeat roles. It's a romantic film, where unique and particularly sensitive souls meet, fall in love, and fight to find their place in the world, against prejudice and fear from the community they live in and even of their own loved ones. The film works best when it uses Sam's quirkiness and his Buster Keaton inspired actions, to add whimsicality and some magic to the proceedings, since otherwise it's a fairly uneventful and somewhat forgettable endeavor. The film does benefit from a great cast, with particular highlights going to the three leads, but also Julianne Moore, who finally emerged as an actress to be noted (in 93 alone she was in Andrew Davis's "The Fugitive", Robert Altman's "Shortcuts" and Uli Edel's "Body of Evidence"), Oliver Platt, Dan Hedaya and William H. Macy. While not a particularly memorable film, the entire cast make it watchable and enjoyable, and for that alone it's worth revisiting. 

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