![]() Exuding a certain innocent charm often found in movies set in pre-Vietnam America (that war has been excised from the original story), the film also focuses on a range of theme-heavy subjects such as what constitutes religious faith, searching for one's parent and tragically losing another, and justification of physical abnormalities by those challenged with them. OUR TAKE: 7 out of 10 Loosely working from John Irving's novel, "A Prayer For Owen Meany," writer/director Mark Steven Johnson (who penned the "Grumpy Old Men" movies) has fashioned an interesting, old fashioned and often touching tale with this picture. JIM CARREY plays a small part as Joe as an adult and serves mainly as the story's mostly unseen narrator.A kind and benevolent man, he takes care of both Joe and Simon. OLIVER PLATT plays the school's drama teacher and Rebecca's new suitor.DAVID STRATHAIRN plays the town's minister who we learn had a sexual liaison many years before the story begins.Formerly an unmarried teenage mother, she meets an untimely death early in the story. ASHLEY JUDD plays Joe's mother who cares for him as much as she does Simon.Like most kids that age, however, he cusses some and is attracted to girls due to his racing hormones. IAN MICHAEL SMITH plays the diminutive twelve-year-old who's justified his physical state by fully believing that God made him that way for a reason.He has his doubts in God's existence, particularly after having to deal with the sudden death of this mother. JOSEPH MAZZELLO plays a normal twelve-year-old kid who's best friends with a diminutive boy with physical challenges.WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: PG For language, emotional thematic elements and an accident scene. WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT? The cast of young performers may draw some, but this theme heavy movie may be too somber (despite otherwise buoyant moments) for others. Nonetheless, it also strengthens the boys' needs to solve their individual quests, and leads to a series of events that will change their lives forever. To complicate matters, his mother has another new man in her life, Ben Goodrich (OLIVER PLATT), the local drama teacher, who hopes to break Joe's icy demeanor toward him.Ī tragic event, however, soon disrupts everyone's lives, and puts a temporary strain on the boys' friendship. His young and beautiful single mother, Rebecca (ASHLEY JUDD), has kept his father's identity a secret from him and everyone else in town, and he hopes to find this man some day. His best friend, Joe Wenteworth (JOSEPH MAZZELLO), has a mission of his own. While Simon deals with his uncaring parents and cruel and callous comments from others in stride, he tries to discover the "master" plan, something that constantly irritates the local minister, Reverend Russell (DAVID STRATHAIRN) and Sunday school teacher, Miss Leavey (JAN HOOKS). The smallest baby ever born in their town, Simon Birch (IAN MICHAEL SMITH) is still extremely small for his age, and his various physical limitations have given him an unwavering belief that God made him that way due to a special heroic plan in store for him. While sad that his friend has long been dead, he rejoices that if not for him, he wouldn't now have faith in God. ![]() PLOT: Visiting the grave of his childhood best friend, a middle-aged man, Joe (JIM CARREY), thinks back to the year 1964 when he and his friend Simon were twelve-year-old kids on the peewee baseball team, had a newfound interest in girls, and loved to hang out at the local lake. ![]() ![]() QUICK TAKE: Drama: Two twelve-year-old best friends try to solve the mysteries in their lives as they grow up in the mid-1960's. ![]() (1998) (Joseph Mazzello, Ian Michael Smith) (PG) ![]()
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