Pumpkin

Rating:
Summary: The Great Pumpkin Patchwork of Laughs
Review: This satire tells a truly unique tale and Christina Ricci does a wonderful acting job proving easy on the eyes. There are some missteps along the way that keep this from rising like the Great Pumpkin on Halloween night.

The portrayal of sorority life on Greek Row is a scream and gives countless fodder for satire. The script-writer proves in-tune with what gets an audience laughing out loud. Though the humor can be black at times, the movie does not forego a happy wrapped up ending to carry the black satire through to the end.

Unlike some other reviewers, I found the use of disabled characters in the story humanizing and not at all exploitive. Pumpkin is a "challenged" athlete that garners the assistance of Christina Ricci's privileged "everything's perfect in life" sorority girl, Carolyn McDuffy. Once the two cross paths, there's no turning back and neither's life will be the same.
McDuffy's all-star tennis stud of a boyfriend ends up in car accident along the way with a fantastic Hollywood off the cliff explosion reminiscent of a MOAB (Mother of all Bombs) going off. The viewer must seriously suspend reality to swallow the shape he is in after the crash. Small thing, but there are other areas in the film like that, that prove detracting.

Good entertainment in Pumpkin and recommended viewing for a quirky, edgy, and downright funny satire with a heart.

Rating:
Summary: Am I missing something here?.........
Review: I read on the cover and it says is hystaraly funny? What the hell is wrong with you people. This movie should have bin in drama. There was like nothing funny about a sorrity girl falling in love with a mental challenged person.
I dont really find that extreamly funny. To the idiot who said if you dont laugh youre lame, shut the hell up cause if you sad films like this funny than you have no taste in movies. The movie was quit borring nothing special.
I didnt like it at all. Not only that......was this a chick flick?

Anyways dont get this garbage just cause the cover says its very funny. Liars.........

Rating:
Summary: anyone who doesn't laugh is lame
Review: This film was far from insulting (handicapped and overweight people??), because it was supposed to be funny. If you're that easily offended perhaps you shouldn't be watching any movies in the first place. Anyway, I find that most films that parody sorority life are hilarious because they are true. However, Pumpkin put a dark twist on sorority life when Christina Ricci falls for a retarded boy. The movie not only parodies sorority life, but life in southern california as well (the rivalry between the inland empire and orange county). One has to look closely to observe such allusions, and it is the subtlety that makes it great.
The main character, Carolyn McDuffy, finds love in the most unlikely of places, and while she was raised to believe that Life is Perfect, she ends up seeing things that she had never thought existed before. Pumpkin is a great film that can be watched for pure entertainment value but can be examined on an intelligent level as well. Movies like these are few and far between, and should be appreciated when they come out.

Rating:
Summary: Who needs character develpoment? Look Deeper.
Review: Despite the obvious lack of character development, which it hardly needed, this movie was very touching, and at times funny, but not from the "American Pie" point of view that it seemed to be billed as in the previews. In truth the movie was not at all what it seemed, a shallow attempt at risky comedy, in fact I found it quite profound, and at times a bit deep. One of the points that reviewers have stated is that the movie needed more character development, and to that I ask where? With the exception of Pumpkin and at times Carolyn, all the characters where shallow, ignorant, and very stereotypical Southern California rich yuppies who care more about appearances and judge people by them rather than what is inside. And, in reality, that is all the story is about. Pumpkin, who is slightly mentally challenged, is really more introverted than retarded, this from years of repression from his shallow mother. Enter Carolyn, who despite being extremely intelligent, finds herself fitting in with the shallow crowd, being popular, vice being herself, but this separates her from the rest of the characters who, though popular, really have no moral standing and are too quick to judge the new romance between Carolyn and Pumpkin. In the end, though, we find that she has been the inspiration to all of the characters and amazingly, and painfully, they all learn a little something from her and finally begin to see though the shallowness of their past.
On a stranger note, there was one particular quirk in the movie I must address, because, from a humor stand point it is pretty funny, but from a drama/realistic stand point, not so much. After Carolyn's ex is humiliated by Pumpkin at the dance, he, the ex, runs off to his car. His car appears to be a charger or some other car of a similar make. He swerves, and next thing you see is supposed to be his car flying off the cliff, however it's a limo now, which after a few seconds bursts into flames and crashes on the rocks below. The next day he is in the hospital, not a scratch, bruise or burn on his body. So, was this a metaphor? a dream? a bit of "Hollywood" joking? or jus bad film making? I also found a bit of interest in the look of the film, how the characters all looked to be from the late 50's or 60's and a line that Carolyn says at the dance "Pumpkin's not riding on the back of the bus any more", seems to point that the movie may have originally been written as a interracial work, but as that is not the hot topic it once was, it was rewritten to be a bit racier by today's standards. But maybe it's just me.

Rating:
Summary: Parody does not deliver as theme is too serious...
Review: It is the beginning of a new school year for the girls at the Alpha Omega Pi, which means they need to recruit new members for their sorority and to win the Sorority of the Year contest. The Alpha Omega Pi's have decided to make an impact on the Greek council by coaching cognitively disabled students for the Special Olympics. The popular Carolyn (Christina Ricci) is a very committed member of the Alpha Omega Pi's, and she is assigned to Pumpkin Romanoff (Hank Harris). At first Carolyn is terrified by Pumpkin, but Pumpkin is excited by Carolyn's presence which empowers his self-esteem. Eventually Carolyn sees the beauty within Pumpkin as he displays his kindness and affection for Carolyn. Pumpkin is a story not to be taken seriously, yet it attempts to send a serious message. These two conflicting ideas make the cinematic experience problematic as it attempts to display comedy and tragedy simultaneously. If the audience becomes to seriously involved in the story then Pumpkin can feel insulting, or if one disconnects with reality and merely attempts to enjoy the ride of the comedy then the audience will miss the message.

Rating:
Summary: What a great film!
Review: This film is a biting satire that casts an irreverant look at the "kind" way society treats the disabled, or the "challenged". At the same time it is warm, human - and just plain funny.

All is well with the world - just as long as everyone keeps their assigned place in the social order : the gracious givers of charity, the grateful recipients. The Helpers and the Helped. What would happen if people would dare to step out of their roles?

Ricci plays a naive blonde sorority girl who's life up to now has been "perfect". Suddenly she is faced with the task of coaching a disabled young man for the special olympics. Ricci is horrified. She wants nothing to do with such unpleasantness. But she has no choice. After a remarkably unsuccesful start to her coaching carreer, Ricci begins to see her young trainee in a different light - and this experience turns her whole picture perfect world on it's head.

The film is full of wonderful characters - Ricci with her incredible naivite, Pumpkin - the young disabled man struggling to find his own voice, Ricci's boyfriend - a dashing college tennis star and heartbreaker who is also a very decent person. The characters are rich and multilayered - even those portrayed in a mostly negative light have moments where their humanity shines clearly through. I suspect that viewers who are parents of disabled will find the depiction of Pumpkin's mother unpleasant, to say the least. But look beyond the first layer, and you will see a woman who defends herself from her own sorrow by shielding her son from life - unfortunately, beyond what he needs or wants.

Sharp barbs are tossed at everyone - except at Pumpkin. Never.

As sharp as the satire is, the overall tone is warm and uplifting. Many hilarious moments abound, including a brief and hysterically funny counseling session.

Two films that came to mind when watching this were "the House of Yes", with a somewhat similar humor, and "Harold and Maude" with a theme not unlike "Pumpkin"'s. I think viewers who liked these would like Pumpkin very much.

Rating:
Summary: farce on love and against-all-odds stories
Review: Glancing over some of the reviews of this movie I am a bit suprised at so many of the negative reviews. It seems to me that we must have been watching a different movie. As "implausable" and "unrealistic" as Pumpkin seemed to be in the views of some of the other reviewers, I found a humourous delicate black comedy that pokes at the world of self obsorbtion and arrogance.
Christina Ricci known for her bold choices in her career and for her ability as an actress plays the main character Carolyn- A sorority sister dating a very popular and "studly" tennis star at a major college in southern california. What more could a girl ask for? What could be more perfect? To Carolyn this was perfection, outside of her competition with a neighboring sorority, life couldn't get any better.
All of this is portrayed in the movie with tongue and cheek glee (think Brady Bunch mixed with 90210). Carolyn's life is turned upside down when she meets up with Pumpkin, a mentally challenged young man who is emmidiatly smitten with her. Carolyn resents her own feelings towards him but eventually she realizes they are "soul mates".
The rest of the movie is about these two very different people finding love with eachother- or so it seems. This is the cleaver part- the story is a twist on all of those sappy "our-love-will-heal-the-world" Cinderella type stories. The director leads the viewer up to the very end dabbing cliches here and there to keep the viewer assuming, but then, subtly there is a twist- and then the end.
The movie is a success on many levels- and for me it did what I always look for art to do- entertain and provoke. See for yourself...

Rating:
Summary: More stars than are alotted.
Review: The first thing I noticed watching this movie was that Christina Ricci's nipples were seemingly always erect. The second thing was that this was the best movie I've seen in a while. I suppose it was a bit over the top sardonically in nature, but taken as an intentional mawkish view of college life through the eyes of a superficial sorority sister, it came across as the writers/director intended and well-done at that I might add. I mean it featured Emiliana Torrini singing a beautiful rendition of an old Rod McKuen poem(what could be more ridiculous than him?!?!) in a haunting and Bjorkesque old scratched up record sort of way, what else would one expect from Pumpkin? Gone with the Wind it isn't. Thank God. But a pleasant surprise it is.

A monstruous and contrived, almost outwardly-mocking relationship between a rich, prep-school college sorority girl and a handicapped man turns into a love story gone wrong, err...right. It starts as a sisterhood pledge to win some coveted trophy by helping challenged athletes, but Ricci's shallow character soon falls for Pumpkin who is the antipode of her jam-it-in-and-kiss-later stud-jock-boyfriend.

The love story is very sweet, despite it being "improper" and to everyone's disdain, but finally leads to her loss of social standing and subsequently a once-promising life tailspinning into oblivion and hopeless loss. 6 stars out of 5.

Rating:
Summary: Charming concept but not developed well
Review: This came so close to being a great movie, it was a great premise and had some well-conceived scenes, but it just never develops any depth. The transformation of Ricci's character from spoiled sorority girl to idealistic humanitarian is just not well done, not believable in the slightest.
And what's even more poorly developed is how in the heck Ricci's character ever falls in love with the retarded guy in the first place. They never show him doing anything, never saying anything, never never is any action of his offered up to the viewer as particularly charming when he is around her. Therefore her love for him is not believable.
They blew it, because they really had something here, I think.
A charming concept that didn't get handled in a way it could have.

Rating:
Summary: Dissapointing
Review: I am a huge Christina Ricci fan, however this film dissapointed me. The attempts at comedy seemed awkward and seemed to come at the most dramatic times of the movie. It just didn't *flow*. Oh, and while we're on the topic of comedy, the only funny parts of the whole movie were those shown in the trailer.

Christina wasn't beleivable as a sorority girl. The personalities of the characters were inconsistant -- one moment they were snobby and shallow the next caring, and then shallow again. She seems to have fallen in love with Pumpkin after one day of frisbee tossing.

I was confused also with the time period of the movie. I'm assuming it was meant to be modern day (it says "not long ago" in the very begining and she drives a Wolkswagen that wasn't too old) yet thats about all that suggests that. The hair and clothes are dated and so is the music they listen to. The movie seemed to portray a sorority in the 60's.

On a positive note, although Pumpkin had very few lines, the camera really captured his soul. That's a good thing since the script and overall flow of the story didn't. I feel his character could have really been developed better, however it seems they were too busy at desperate attempts for a laugh. Another plus was the fact that the film was very colorful and beautiful to watch. That's about the only thing that kept me watching.

The end was dissapointing and confusing. The entire movie shows how a "normal" person and a mentally handicapped person can fall in love and connect on a deep emotional level. However, at the very end, one becomes disturbed when Carolyn asks pumkin grade-school question about metaphors and he obviously doesn't understand. She gives this, "what am i getting myself into" look to the camera as the walk off into the sunset. This seems to go against everything the movie was trying to say about two people in love and made me uncomfortable. It seemed to hint that Carolyn will spend her life being Pumpkin's mother rather than lover.

You can tell that this movie was meant to make some sort of an impact, but seemed to take a wrong turn after the first ten minutes.