SIMON BIRCH Reviewed by Dennis Lewis If you had to dab away a few tears at the conclusion of "Titanic," you may want to take along a full box of Puffs if you go see "Simon Birch." "Simon Birch," which opens nationwide on Sept. 11, is a movie that can bring a smile to the face of the most jaded viewer -- or tears to the eyes of the most cynical. Simon, the title character, is an exceptionally compact individual. At birth he was "no bigger than a baby bird," according to the movie synopsis, and he remains unusually small as he approaches adolescence. Simon's best friend, Joe, is a tall, athletic teenager from one of the wealthier families in the Maine village in which he and Simon live. Yet Joe feels like an outsider among the other teenagers in his community because his mother Rebecca bore him out of wedlock (and has never married). The two "outsiders" -- Joe, the "town bastard," and the diminutive Simon -- form a bond that, as it turns out, has enough strength to withstand the most serious strain. Simon has a belief that God made him small for a reason, to fulfill a special mission. One of the movie's key themes concerns Simon's quest for his "special purpose" in life. The other deals with Joe's search for clues to the identity of his father, who he believes still resides in their village. Joe is played by Joseph Mazzello, whose previous credits include both "Jurassic Park" and its sequel, "The Lost World." Mazzello manages to infuse his character with the blend of maturity and youthful innocence necessary to generate audience interest in his quest to identify his father. Ian Michael Smith brings a self-reliance to the character of Simon. As we watch him on the screen, we're not thinking "poor Simon" because of his physical limitations; rather, we're cheering his pugnacious approach to life. David Straithairn (most recently of "L.A. Confidential") plays the Rev. Russell, rector of the local Episcopal church, the congregation attended by Joe's family and Simon. Straithairn's cleric isn't the charismatic spiritual leader we're used to seeing on screen. Repeatedly we sense that Russell is trying, but failing, to connect with his parishioners. (Simon Birch is a reunion of sorts for Straithairn and Mazzello -- the two played father and son in 1994's "The River Wild.") Saturday Night Live veteran Jan Hooks, who did a "church lady"-type character on Ted Turner's TBS Superstation at the beginning of her career in the early 1980s, is divine in her role as teacher of Joe and Simon's Sunday School class. Hooks plays her character as a frustrated woman who possesses a lot of insecurity and just a dash of menace. The main cast is rounded out by Ashley Judd, who plays Joe's mother Rebecca with an endearing charm that never ventures into the saccharin, and Oliver Pratt as Ben Goodrich, Rebecca's beau, a drama teacher who has a remarkable knack for child psychology. Simon Birch originally began as a project to adapt John Irving's novel "A Prayer for Owen Meany" to the screen. The resulting script diverted from the novel to such a degree that Irving requested the film have a different name. One title considered for the film was "Angels and Armadillos," a quirky name but one with a significance evident to those who've seen the movie. Jim Carrey has a cameo in the bookend scenes that frame the movie. But this isn't a Jim Carrey movie or a "big name" movie; it's a film that relies on acting and script quality, rather than star power, to attract an audience. If any film this year merits at least one Oscar nomination, it's "Simon Birch."
Cast Joseph Mazzello.................................Joe Ian Michael Smith...............................Simon Ashley Judd.....................................Rebecca Oliver Platt....................................Ben Goodrich David Straithairn...............................Rev. Russell Jan Hooks.......................................Sunday School Teacher Jim Carrey......................................Joe as an adult
Suggested by John Irving's novel "A Prayer for Owen Meany"
Written for the screen and directed by Mark Steven Johnson
Source: Internet Movie Database (http://us.imdb.com or http://italy.imdb.com) and studio Web site for Simon Birch (http://www.simonbirch.com).
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