Pumpkin (2002)

I can't say why this hasn't become a cult classic, as it's such a rich and wonderful satirical story with silliness and heart and real humanity.

Christina Ricci shines brightly in this film, true to her character from beginning to end. Even as a woman, I had to appreciate the obvious display of her naturally full chest as a second character, from the slow-mo running sequence to the particularly cold room of her distracted singing. Melissa McCarthy is brilliant in this, showing her natural talent as an actress, and the fabulous Amy Adams! I think she has 2 lines in this, yet you do remember her.

Well crafted and so, so funny! A quirky oddball of a comedy, but boy do I wish they made more films like it today.

Fmovies: "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)

This film has a lot of depth. The actors did an excellent job portraying very three-dimensional characters. Occasionally, I found myself rooting for the antagonists. In this movie Christina Ricci's character is part of a comically cliché sorority. The sorority sisters decide to mentor mentally retarded college freshmen as a goodwill project to help them win a contest. When Ricci's character meets Pumpkin, played by Hank Harris, her entire world changes. My world changed too, because I suddenly had a new favorite movie.

The writing was superb. This outstanding story is both hilarious and touching. The directing was top-notch as was this pacing of this perfect little movie. The sense of humor displayed ranges from quirky to diabolical.

I would recommend this movie to fans of Donnie Darko, Napolian Dynamite, or Last Supper :)

Pumpkin fmovies. This movie is fantastic, although you probably have to have a certain comic sensibility to appreciate it. The best parts of this movie are so subtle that you might miss them the first time around. The director certainly doesn't hold your hand.

The soundtrack in particular was amazing. The montage set against Belle & Sebastian's "Stars of Track and Field" is one of the better uses of song in a movie I've encountered.

I rarely come across comedies that demonstrate any originality. It's mostly formulaic junk. Pumpkin is a beautiful, hilarious, and has a great deal of thematic and character depth.

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!

Surprisingly sweet dark comedy is really too sentimental at heart to be the edgy piece it was promoted as, and the curious final results show definite signs of indecisive filmmakers (two directors!) at the helm. A sorority princess living in a privileged bubble has her existence turned upside-down after forging a loving relationship with a mentally challenged young man, losing her friends in the process. The direction is erratic, and the tone of the film changes from scene to scene, yet it is certainly unpredictable and the cast is game. I don't know if the focus of the movie was changed midway, but the later sequences have a sweet nuance to them, as if a big softie suddenly took over to see this thing through to a happy ending. And then there's that final shot which, in keeping with the rest of the picture, is amusingly bizarre. **1/2 from ****