The Mighty
_Freak The Mighty_ (original title) received such a response at last year's Cannes Film Festival, that our friends at Miramax picked this film up on impulse. And rightly so. Like _The Spitfire Grill_ before it, here is an honest tearjerker that contains breakthrough performances, a good (if not quirky) cast, and some moments that I declare "magical."
Then PR got its hands on the film. Bad news. It seems like every decision made to promote _FTM_ has only furthered to draw people away.
Mistake No. 1: Rename it _The Mighty_, which means absolutely, positively... nothing. (Mighty what? Mouse? Ducks? Aphrodite?) Is it a superhero? Is it a baseball player? Is it an earthquake?
Mistake No. 2: Bill this as a Sharon Stone vehicle. Sharon Stone, to her credit, delivers a solid, if not Oscar worthy performance. But it is merely a supporting role. She doesn't need to have her portrait dominate the ads for this vehicle. Astute moviegoers and Sharon Stone voyeurs will not be impressed.
Mistake No. 3: Release it weeks after the better-hyped _Simon Birch_. Personally, after I saw the previews for _Birch_, I became convinced that I had seen more than my fair share of gawky adolescent buddy films with screaming violins and public sermons that, apparently, the Hollywood community is hearing for the first time. All this delivered by overly short, wretchingly cute know-it-alls plus grin. Gary Coleman, anyone?
Mistake No. 4: Have its own previews usurped by a commercial advertisement that has _nothing_ to do with the film. If memory serves me well, it's that movie-based ad where the kids are content watching television while in a van, and the camera pulls back to see the van driving through some breathtaking imagery of the Rocky Mountains. Which begs the question: why would the parents allow their kids to miss awe-inspiring scenery for a _video_?
Why do I spend so much of this review panning Mirimax's PR campaign? Because the film is good. Really good. And every misstep Mirimax makes is lessoning the availability of this feature. I traveled a great distance to see it, only to find that the theater wasn't even quarter-filled.
_The Mighty_ stars Elden Hensen and Kieran Culkin as the two misfits that bond. Kieran, younger brother of Macaulay, plays Kevin Dillon, a cute, smart boy with Marquio's syndrome. Hensen plays the hulking, withdrawn Max Kane, who stayed behind in seventh grade twice. Kevin becomes Max's reading tutor, and introduces him to the legend of King Arthur. Their friendship blossoms. They recognize that their strengths in unison, more than make up for their deficiencies. Max plops Kevin on his shoulders, and with the gift of imagination, they become super-human.
What truly makes this film unique is its fondness for all things Arthurian. The knights of the round table, the quest for the grail, the tales of Taliesin and Merlin, each story is filled with magic and timeless wonder. What director Peter Chelsom and writers Charles Leavitt/Rodman Philbrick have accomplished is that monumental task of bringing King Arthur to the slums of Cincinatti, without being cloying or sentimental.
By using this element (and not overplaying this hand), it brings the rest of the film into perspective. Suddenly, those bullies at school aren't nearly as terrifying. Honorable deeds, such as returning a woman's purse with money intact, are pursued with valor. And when Max's inner demons materialize in his room, both he and Kevin conjure up the strength and ingenuity to be able to conquer them.
This all sounds cliched, but it is not. Chelsom directs this film with immense restraint, with every character being authentic. Hensen, whose character begins as brooding and silent, undergoes a transformation that almost had me in tears. Stone plays her limited screen time with the resonance of Dee Wallace Stone. Gena Rowlands redeems her dreadful overacting in _Hope Floats_ with a quiet, effective persona. Most surprising of all is Gillian Anderson, barely recognizable from her _X-files_ alter-ego, as a floozy played to the hilt for comic effect. She's the only one allowed to overact, but it works.
If I have any reservations for the film, it is that the film does tread somewhat familiar terrain (bullies at school, life-threatening illness, fatherless homes), and that there were moments where Kieran Culkin is just barely too cutesy for my taste. Even the final showdown had moments of creative implausibilities, but at least kids will like it. That said, _The Mighty_ surprised me in how much I was drawn in, and how effective the denouement was. I was reminded of Stephen Lawhead's Pendragon trilogy, or C. S. Lewis' Narnia series, and how those books affected me growing up. Hopefully, it would inspire new converts to the cult of reading, with the honesty and thrill that Macaulay Culkin's _Pagemaster_ retreated from.
Nick Scale (1 to 10): 8
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