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Film #18 of the "Scavenger Hunt" Challenge!
Task #19 : A film featuring a physically or mentally challenged person!
letterboxd.com/naughty/list/scavenger-hunt/

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If you are looking for a serious film dealing with mental illness this would not be the film for you! However as a fairly lighthearted film with a bit of romance thrown into the mix, and touching ever so slightly on elements of mental illness it's actually turns out to be quite an amusing film!

For me the success of the film quite frankly is due to Johnny Depp! He plays an eccentric young man whom idolizes and mimic's Buster Keaton! His Buster Keaton-esque performances will put a smile on your face and lift up your heart!

A really sweet and endearing look at mental illness packaged up as a delightfully quirky romcom. Depp has made a career out of playing eccentric characters so naturally shines as Sam, a well dressed oddball with a talent for physical comedy in the vein of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.

Its intentions are totally benevolent but if you look past the comedy and charming love story it does come across naive and slightly ignorant of its subject matter; it totally skims over Joon's illness. (We never actually find out what she has if I'm not mistaken).

If you're looking for realism you won't find it in Benny & Joon but I was won over by its whimsy and a brilliant early performance from Depp.

Benny and Joon is a sweet trifle of a film that rests heavily on its performances; it would be hard to imagine this film working without Johnny Depp or Mary Stuart Masterson holding it all together. Aidan Quinn is also notable in a role that's easy to pass over for it's subtlety. Makes a good (and forward-thinking) case for person centered recovery in mental health, even if it avoids any other complexity on the topic. I like that the film never gets bogged down in the melodrama these kinds of movies often revel in, and it resists many of the easy clichés to be found in similar fare. A good film to see Johnny Depp in before his acting persona calcified, and a pleasant way to spend an hour and a half. Not the best tutorial on making grilled cheeses, however.

Kind of fun. Not anything spectacular, but worth of a watch if you’re bored. Johnny Depp is fun in it.

Wonderfully acted. I just wish Joon’s wellbeing wasn’t completely dependent on the men in her life, which is a classic flaw of romantic comedy. Otherwise a unique and lovely film.

I really enjoyed this movie. Young Johnny Depp was truly something.

so iconic

One of those “take comfort in the fact that the two weird people have each other so the normal people can stop being bothered by them” movies. But unlike The Fisher King, Benny & Joon feels like it sees itself as above the “weird people” and fails to properly sympathize with them, making the whole dynamic feel gross.

I wish the bubonic plague on Johnny Depp BUT I've never seen someone hotter than him in this movie...................................................................................

Don't know what the film was about.

ok it's not actually that good but joon and sam are so good in it

Do you ever watch a film and think “I can’t believe this isn’t a TV movie”?

Despite the films oversimplified depiction of mental illness and issues surrounding it, I must say that it is VERY light and charming.