Benny & Joon

Year:	1993
Country:	USA
Language:	English
Genre:	Romance, Comedy, Drama
IMDB:	IMDB Page
Rating:	9.5 Rate
Collection:	Seen It Wishlist
Community:	8 Have Seen


Director	Jeremiah S. Chechik
Selected Cast	Johnny Depp as Sam
	Mary Stuart Masterson as Joon Pearl
	Aidan Quinn as Benny Pearl
	Julianne Moore as Ruthie
	Oliver Platt as Eric
	C.C.H. Pounder as Dr. Garvey
	Dan Hedaya as Thomas
	Joe Grifasi as Mike
	William H. Macy as Randy Burch
	Eileen Ryan as Mrs. Smail

On DVD & Blu-ray World

DVD

Benny & Joon - MGM - UK (2004)

VHS

Benny & Joon - MGM / UA - USA (1997)

VHS

Benny & Joon - MGM / UA - USA (1993)

VHS

Benny & Joon - MGM / UA - Germany (1993)

Images

Comments and Reviews


Magic Marmalade 12th Aug 2022		Rated 10/10 Joon: "You're out of your tree" ...Sam: "It's not my tree" (One of my favourite lines in any movie :) One of those movies that over the course of time, has unintentionally become one of my all time favourites... ...By virtue of the fact that I just keep watching it, when I want something light, fun, enjoyable, and warm to look at. It's bit of a silly, absurdist comedy overlaying a more personal, poignant story of a brother (Benny- Aidan Quinn) who has raised, essentially, and is looking after his little sister Joon (Mary Stuart Masterson) in the wake of losing their parents to tragedy. Benny wants a life outside of being a mechanic, and looking after Joon as best he can, but is resigned to his responsibilities , but Joon has grown and is now a young woman, who's PTSD based (+ unspecified schizophrenic condition) mental health issues make her increasingly hard to cope with. Benny has the world in the condition he wants it, and can just about handle, when Joon accidentally wins the simple, uneducated Sam (Johnny Depp) in a poker game. Sam is a bit zany, and has a thing for Buster Keaton, and Joon, being a young woman, despite her issues, is more than a little taken with him, naturally. ...So Benny now has to take him home, and the change in this household dynamic begins to shake his fragile family world apart. There are some quite big issues here around mental illness, such as taking care of someone who has them, especially if you are struggling a bit yourself, and whether it is the right thing, or better for them to be "in care", but these are background, or contextual themes in the movie, lightly, and deftly handled, so as not to get in the way of the funnier aspects of mental illness, and the comedic moments that come of it, and it doesn't overdo it, or sermonise on the issues... it assumes an intelligence in the audience, and allows a lot to be a given, or understood. That said, Mary Stuart Masterson gives one of the most sensitive and underrated performances ever here, as someone has is suffering with such things and she deserves much more credit for the performance than she gets. Mostly, this is because of Depp's Keaton style physical comedy performance largely overshadowed it... (And is probably why people often misunderstand the titular characters of this to be her and Depp.) There's another early performance by Julianne Moore as Benny's possible burgeoning love interest, waitress and former minor movie "Scream Queen", and is where The Proclaimers 500 Miles song really got brought to the wider world. And a special feature is a novel way to make toast :) ✔︎ Helpful Review?



jaimeeduardo 12th Feb 2021

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