Pumpkin

This is what happens when you make a movie without deciding what sort of movie you're making. Half of Pumpkin wants to be a an over-the-top, artificial satire like Heathers or But I'm a Cheerleader, and the other half wants to be a sweet movie of a shallow girl who grows from her experience with a mentally challenged boy. While it might be possible to make the film's premise work with either of these approaches, you can't use both of them. Scenes that are comedically exaggerated are followed by scenes of painful sincerity. Some actors appear to think they're in a satire while others think they're in a drama, so even individual scenes seem askew. The film probably would have worked best as pure satire, but one suspects the director thought the underlying issues were important and wanted to hammer them home dramatically. As a drama it fails because it makes no sense, Ricci's character isn't given anything convincing to react to; the situation is simply absurd. This is a classic example of failed direction.

Oddly enough, my girlfriend loved this.

"Your relationship is...inappropriate," one of Carolyn's sadly superficial sorority sisters says to her in the course of "Pumpkin", and that statement sums up this superbly uncategorizable exercise to perfection. Nothing about "Pumpkin" is appropriate, from the soundtrack choices (the music in the fight scene between Pumpkin and Kent in particular), the casting (it was a near-shock to see Dominique Swain with her clothes on through the ENTIRE FILM for openers), the story itself and the shamelessly ambiguous manner in which it's presented. It works, though, thanks to a supremely conflicted and tender performance from Christina Ricci and the simplicity, sensitivity and sincerity of Hank Harris' interpretation of the title character. Life isn't just one thing, it's all things all at one time sometimes. Just like this movie.

Julie Thurber (Marisa Coughlan) intends to lead the Alpha Omega Pi sisters to win against the Tri Omegas by helping mentally challenged athletes for the regional Games. Carolyn McDuffy (Christina Ricci) and Jeanine Kryszinsky (Dominique Swain) disagree with the handicap work. The perky Carolyn is assigned Pumpkin Romanoff (Hank Harris). She finds him to be endearing while he's in love with her. She tries to set up a double-date with Cici Pinkus (Melissa McCarthy) but it goes horribly wrong. She falls in love with Pumpkin horrifying everybody.

Its wacky satire is somewhat funny. The over the top sorority girls get a few laughs. It is Christina Ricci's absolute commitment to this character that truly sells it. She's hilarious. The love affair isn't given much preparation. That's probably the biggest problem. It's written as a given. Also I wish Pumpkin is a deeper character. He's a bit too simplistic. Nevertheless this is funny little dark satire.

Satires are not always comedies, just like comedies are not always satires. Examples: "Robocop", "District 9", "Starship Troopers", "Stepford Wives" ...these are all brilliant satires; yet they are not comedies.

I think it's misleading for Pumpkin to be advertised as a comedy. Sure, it's packed full of subtle humour, but like the films I mentioned above, its intent is probably not to make us laugh out loud. Its intent is to give us an offbeat look at society without taking itself too seriously. So if you go into this film expecting something "HYSTERICALLY FUNNY" (says the Washington Post), you might be disappointed.

Another caveat: this film is not about disabled people--not like, say, "Shine" or "My Left Foot". True, the plot is about a sorority girl who gets into an "inappropriate" relationship with a mentally challenged boy, but that's just a metaphor for what the film is really hitting us with. The film simply uses this metaphor to illustrate the screwed-up norms of human society. Pay attention early on to the speech Christina Ricci gives about how sororities & fraternities end up dividing us, labeling us and creating differences where none really exist. I believe that encapsulates what this film is trying to tell us about our world, and you'll realize it's a lot more than just a romantic comedy.

In order to fully appreciate this film, you CANNOT take anything at face value. Everything ...even the wooden acting or the melodramatic pill scene or the exploding car (lol)... is designed to be over-the-top, showing us a bizarre world and giving a little wink to the audience. Almost every scene will have you wondering if the filmmakers were being ironic, and that's the beauty of unravelling a film such as this. It's very subtle but well executed, almost like Hitchcock's brand of humour in Strangers on a Train which, similarly, pokes fun at the veneer of polite society hiding the screwed-uppedness beneath (in fact, "Pumpkin" has a tennis scene that's reminiscent of the tennis scene in the "Strangers").

I'm not sure if everyone will like Pumpkin but I sure did. If you're a fan of the 4 satires I mentioned in my 1st paragraph, I think you'll like it. If so, I highly recommend the Mexican film "Casi Divas" (2008) about a cut-throat talent competition, and the Spanish movie "El Crimen Ferpecto" (2004) about a man trapped in a department store overnight. Along with "Pumpkin", these are light-hearted gems that make us think hard about the human condition. Oh don't forget "Heathers" (1988) which fits right in with the bunch, though a bit on the darker side.

"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)