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Review by Dustin Putman
1½ stars out of 4
By now, it's probably fair to say that most people have heard about the
controversy surrounding the release of "Bubble Boy," a dippy comedy about a
young man forced to live in a plastic bubble due to an immune deficiency. One
mother of a son with this real-life disease, who passed away several years
ago, is boycotting the picture, believing it to make fun of people with this
rare disorder. Her stance of the subject is rather ill-advised, exposing her
to not even have taken the time to view the movie on her own. In actuality,
the film paints a positive, caring portrait of the disorder, and never makes
fun of the character in any way. That said, "Bubble Boy" remains a very bad
motion picture for completely separate reasons, and does prove offensive to
Jews and Muslims, who are looked upon as nothing but money-grubbing,
religion-crazed loons.
Born with a debilitating disease in which coming into contact with any sort
of germ could prove fatal to his immune system, 16-year-old Jimmy Livingston
(Jake Gyllenhaal) has grown up living in a large, plastic-shrouded
environment. With a crazed, if loving, mother (Swoosie Kurtz) who finishes
off every bedtime fairy tale with the main character journeying out into the
world, only to get sick and die, Jimmy faces a life filled with loneliness.
Things make a turn for the better when he becomes best friends with Chloe
(Marley Shelton), the sweet girl from next door. It is clear that Jimmy and
Chloe love each other, but with her unsure if a relationship with him could
work, Chloe announces that she is to be married at Niagara Falls to scumbag
Mark (Dave Sheridan) in three days. Desperate not to lose her, Jimmy quickly
builds a plastic bubble for himself and sets off on a cross-country trek to
profess his love to Chloe before she takes the plunge.
An alternately dark and upbeat comedy, "Bubble Boy" is rarely funny, mildly
entertaining in a very morbid sort of way, and almost always terrible.
Directed without spark by novice filmmaker Blair Hayes, the film is not only
uneven, but also astoundingly prejudiced towards difference races, religious
beliefs, and cultures. The title character, of which the outroar has stemmed
from, is, ironically, the one major figure who is characterized in a fair,
gentle light.
The third road movie to come out in the last seven days (a week after "Rat
Race" and on the same day as "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back"), "Bubble Boy"
contributes every cliche that is vital to the fast-wearing genre, with Jimmy
meeting an array of eccentrics on the open road, from a Hindu ice cream/curry
truck driver (Brian George), to a train full of circus freaks (including
oddball musician Beetlejuice), to a straight-talking biker (Danny Trejo), to
a bus filled with demented, smiling cultists. All of it is meant to be both
amusing and humorous, but it is neither, thanks to the dopey, overstuffed
screenplay by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio. The picture doesn't know the first
thing about setting up jokes, although most of them are far too lame to even
have worked coming from the Farrelly Brothers (1998's "There's Something
About Mary").
Jake Gyllenhaal, who oozed charisma in 1999's "October Sky," is innocently
likable as the bubble boy. Since the film is seen through his eyes, and most
of what surrounds him is deplorable on any number of levels, at least
Gyllenhaal comes through as a hero worth rooting for. Marley Shelton (2001's
"Valentine"), as the girl Jimmy can't live without, is an attractive
performer too promising to be wasting her time in such throwaway roles. And
Swoosie Kurtz (2001's "Get Over It") has a field day as Jimmy's frighteningly
"out-there" mom, who bakes him cross-shaped cookies with the word, "Jesus,"
stamped on them. Finally, Verne Troyer (who played Mini-Me in 1999's "Austin
Powers 2") is the only actor who garners any laughs from the proceedings, as
a sexually potent midget who is mistaken as a young child by Jimmy's parents.
"Bubble Boy" may pass itself off as a harmless piece of fantasy fluff, but it
carries an undercurrent of nastiness that doesn't quite sit well with the
more romantic parts of the story. The picture suffers from a
split-personality, with much of the short 84-minute running time devoted to
unnecessary badgering of potential audience members. And while Gyllenhaal and
Shelton are good together, the film unfortunately keeps them apart for nearly
an hour, ruining any chances for a winning love story. "Bubble Boy" is
ineffective, ugly moviemaking--the perfect DOA dud to finish the summer off
with.
Copyright © 2001 Dustin Putman
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out of 4
