Pumpkin

I'm not sure if this movie goes way too far, or not far enough. A dark teenage comedy, Pumpkin tells of the story of the perfection obsessed sorority girl Carolyn McDuffy who falls for Pumpkin, a mentally challenged boy she meets when her sorority house agrees to coach some `special people.' The film forces the viewer to look inward and confront their own prejudices, but it does so in such a strange and weirdly paced way that it is hard to recommend Pumpkin, although I think it is an interesting movie. I wish someone like Lloyd Kaufman would have directed it, someone who would take the gloves off and go for the jugular in every scene and really give this material some bite. A movie like this will only work if the filmmaker goes in completely committed to the idea. As it is Pumpkin seems to teeter on the brink of outrageousness, but pulling back every time to stay on the PC side of the fence. It's a shame because this could have been a truly wonderful and subversive movie.

Satires are not always comedies, just like comedies are not always satires. Examples: "Robocop", "District 9", "Starship Troopers", "Stepford Wives" ...these are all brilliant satires; yet they are not comedies.

I think it's misleading for Pumpkin to be advertised as a comedy. Sure, it's packed full of subtle humour, but like the films I mentioned above, its intent is probably not to make us laugh out loud. Its intent is to give us an offbeat look at society without taking itself too seriously. So if you go into this film expecting something "HYSTERICALLY FUNNY" (says the Washington Post), you might be disappointed.

Another caveat: this film is not about disabled people--not like, say, "Shine" or "My Left Foot". True, the plot is about a sorority girl who gets into an "inappropriate" relationship with a mentally challenged boy, but that's just a metaphor for what the film is really hitting us with. The film simply uses this metaphor to illustrate the screwed-up norms of human society. Pay attention early on to the speech Christina Ricci gives about how sororities & fraternities end up dividing us, labeling us and creating differences where none really exist. I believe that encapsulates what this film is trying to tell us about our world, and you'll realize it's a lot more than just a romantic comedy.

In order to fully appreciate this film, you CANNOT take anything at face value. Everything ...even the wooden acting or the melodramatic pill scene or the exploding car (lol)... is designed to be over-the-top, showing us a bizarre world and giving a little wink to the audience. Almost every scene will have you wondering if the filmmakers were being ironic, and that's the beauty of unravelling a film such as this. It's very subtle but well executed, almost like Hitchcock's brand of humour in Strangers on a Train which, similarly, pokes fun at the veneer of polite society hiding the screwed-uppedness beneath (in fact, "Pumpkin" has a tennis scene that's reminiscent of the tennis scene in the "Strangers").

I'm not sure if everyone will like Pumpkin but I sure did. If you're a fan of the 4 satires I mentioned in my 1st paragraph, I think you'll like it. If so, I highly recommend the Mexican film "Casi Divas" (2008) about a cut-throat talent competition, and the Spanish movie "El Crimen Ferpecto" (2004) about a man trapped in a department store overnight. Along with "Pumpkin", these are light-hearted gems that make us think hard about the human condition. Oh don't forget "Heathers" (1988) which fits right in with the bunch, though a bit on the darker side.

Webster's New World Dictionary defines the word ‘retarded' as: 'slow or delayed in development, esp mentally.'

The movie's setup is certainly different from the typical ‘boy meets girl' formula. We've all seen the ‘nerd gets girl' bit. Well, this time it's taken to the ‘next level' if you will. The plot revolves around a stereotypical ‘prom queen' type of sorority girl falling in love with a mentally (and physically) handicapped boy, and how everything she once held dear falls apart because of it.

This is the sort of project that Christina Ricci has made a career out of doing. Namely, dark comedies. She plays against type insofar as she's considered a rather ‘edgy' actress, yet her role in this flick is that of the ‘popular girl'. A role in which is has obvious fun lampooning.

The subject matter would make one think that this would be a conventional straight drama, but it isn't, which is perhaps what elevates it above what could be typical tearjerker schlock. The film never takes itself too seriously, there's always a bit of ‘winking' involved. Take for instance when Ricci's character tries to kill herself by overdosing on Night Quill and Pepto-Bismol-only to succeed in making herself sick to her stomach.

However, while satirical, it does make good points on how the general public view and think about the mentally handicapped. How beneath the platitudes and seeming self sacrifice, most people still view them as ‘unequal' to the rest of us-people to whom mouth service is given, but true acceptance of is never a genuine consideration.

The way everyone turns on Ricci's character (her friends, her boyfriend, her parents) when it's made clear her feelings for her ‘special friend'-it's very poignant and very real (if not also very farcical). And one supposes that it's because of that blatant bias of others that make her make out scenes with said ‘special friend' so satisfying. She not only accepts him, but accepts him as a woman accepts a man. One has to admit, there's something oddly esoteric about seeing her have an implied sex scene with a ‘retard'. It sort of warms the cockles of one's heart.

‘Off beat' is the best way to quantify this film. It toes the line between full-blown farce and full on drama. Satirical yet genuine. And this is coming from a guy that usually avoids these types of flicks like the Bubonic Plague!

"Pumpkin" slips mercurially through the genres ending up somewhere around black comedy with farcical overtones and biting undercurrents as it tells of a privileged, superficial sorority sister (Ricci) who "gets real" and falls for a mentally challenged man (Harris) while coaching him for a Special Olympics type event. The film boldly treads on thin ice, clumsily at times, as it tramples social constructs from decorum to morality while managing to maintain a marginally interesting storyline. Probably a real achievement given the experience of the auteur, "Pumpkin" will likely end up a love it or hate it flick of modest significance. Worth a look as a curiosity if nothing more. (B)

She's one of the best young actresses, always searching for projects she's interested in and not stuff designed to make her a star. Pumpkin is one of the most unusual films around...similar to "Heathers" in many ways....but still remains its own movie. Christina Ricci is fabulous in the role of a sorority girl who finds her humanity after falling in love with a mentally challenged boy. It's part satire, part black comedy, part romance...and it has received criticism for this. But I admire a film that explores different genres...and when they are as entertaining as Pumpkin that makes it all worthwhile.