Rating: 
Summary: What a great movie!
Review: "Pumpkin" is absolutely hilarious! Christina Ricci plays a snooty sorority girl who falls in love with a handicapped boy, much to the dismay of her family and friends. The film does an excellent job of portraying sorority stereotypes (Ricci is ostracized from her sorority sisters when she begins socializing with a "retard"). Some people have criticized the movie for being "insensitive" toward handicapped people, and that's just not true. It's a COMEDY, people! A parody! And it's HYSTERICAL!
There are so many great moments in this film, such as the "West Side Story"-esque streetfight between Pumpkin and Kent; the rival sorority house where every single skanky girl wants to sleep with Kent (and does); and poor Pumpkin being stranded on the beach for what seems like ten hours.
My favorite dialogue exchange in the film:
MRS. McDUFFY: Did he rape you, my dear?
CAROLYN (sobbing): It was consensual!!!
(I guess you have to watch it in order to laugh at that part, but oh well.)
I recommend this movie to everyone. It's guaranteed to give you a good laugh. This is very much a black comedy, though, so if you don't appreciate that kind of humor, this probably isn't the film for you.
Rating: 
Summary: What was the point?
Review: With great anticipation, I waited to watch this movie with close, intelligent and broad minded friends as company. The result was not describable. Couldn't say what it was we had watched. Was it disappointing? - we don't know because none of us could translate the message. Lot's of ironic, nervous laughing. It was as if the theme played out in some off-planet alien way that none of us could connect to.
The major issue debated among us was what motivated the script writers, and even more the funding partners to produce this movie. What made all 5 of us confused was the unanimous vote of disapproval on our part contrasted to the glowing reviews("hysterically funny").!? None of us came out hysterically amused except maybe to regard the reviewers who came out positive as another human species.
A common shared emotion after watching this movie was feeling kind smeared with something indescribable but bad.
"Pumkin" is a bad movie. It is not humorous, not kind, not redeeming socially. Not noir. Below Sophmoric.
Rating: 
Summary: Pumpkin is beautiful on the inside
Review: Christina Ricci's performance as a confused young woman is accurately showcased. Pumpkin begins with the arrival of Carolyn McDuffy, played by a blonde Christina Ricci, to her sorority house of Alpha Omega Pi at the start of her senior year.
Julie, played by Marisa Coughlan, is the head of the sorority with the intent on winning the Sorority of the year, known throughout the movie as SOY. The sorority that beat them out last year consists of tall blonde beauties so she decides to impress the Greek Council by picking as the charity a group of mentally challenged athletes from Riverside that are competing for the Challenged Games, comparable to Special Olympics.
The thought of being paired up with a retarded type person freaks Carolyn out as well as some of the other sorority sisters. It just so happens the guy she is to mentor arrives off the school bus riding in a wheelchair with her photo, seeking her out. Their first few practices on the field are not comfortable for Carolyn, as she cannot understand what Pumpkin, played by Mark Harris, is trying to say. It seems to affect her because she cannot get in bed with her boyfriend, Kent who is the star tennis player for USCS. The pairing of these two did not work well for me, it seemed more comical at times and he came off as pathetic with no redeeming qualities.
The casting for Pumpkin was superb as I immediately took a liking to him having no previous knowledge of this actor until I prepared for this review and read his bio. The roles of the mothers for both Pumpkin and Carolyn were excellent, and they both really had no clue to their children and their personalities. It seemed Carolyn's mother expected her to be a certain way and not have friends that were the slightest bit different. Pumpkin's mother seemed to think he could not amount to much besides winning the Challenging Games and seemed surprised that he could stand instead of sitting in his wheelchair.
Carolyn is confused with the feelings she is starting to have for Pumpkin and how she and Kent are going off in different directions. Pumpkin told her she was the smartest person he knew. Carolyn had never heard this before from those that cared for her and it got her thinking about life. She starts to feel pain for the first time in her perfect life and compares it to a shattered mirror. Carolyn admires Pumpkin for being able to handle pain and to feel happy despite his obstacles.
Each time she lies in her bed she pulls out of a drawer a photo of Pumpkin and then adds to the drawer a drawing he did of her looking at the stars and moon. He is starting to affect her in many ways and that becomes clear over the course of time in the movie Pumpkin.
Pumpkin explores a girl who thought she had the perfect life until she met an extraordinary guy that showed her what happiness was from the inside. She had to leave town for Long Beach first before she realized she could accept him into her life. There are some interesting moments with Carolyn and other students that happen to be the other sorority members and ones from hers in a class that is about poetry. She also sees a counselor to discuss how she can stop falling in love with someone she does not want to have a sexual relationship with.
One thing that I found lacking was no mention of employment opportunities for these college seniors and where they were headed once they graduated. It seemed to focus more on beating the other sorority and winning the Challenged Games. The music fit along with the darkness at times of the movie, perhaps getting a bit louder than I had expected. This runs almost two hours and at one point you might think the movie is over but things turn for the worse for Kent, who seems to be jealous of Pumpkin and unable to let go of Carolyn.
Rating: 
Summary: Just Rent It
Review: I really liked the audacity of this film, and its thematic richness. But it ultimately didn't quite work for me. There was something unwieldy and graceless about the whole thing; too many scenes suffered from a distractingly awkward melding of serious and comedic elements.
I tend to like challenging or quirky films, cinema with the guts to defy conventions. So there was much in this movie to keep me watching. I only wish my enjoyment of it hadn't been interrupted every few minutes by another clumsy ill-conceived scene.
Rating:
Summary: Pumpkin Paranoia
Review: I am shocked at how many viewers found this movie discriminating...quite the contrary. Although it was not "Action-Packed", "Gut-Busting Comedy", or "Edge of your seat Suspense", it was definetly enjoyable and entertaining. I am a huge movie buff and tire of the same boring plots, old jokes, and expected endings. This movie may not have been believable and realistic, but neither was the Wizard of Oz. It has a variety of twists and turns that keeps your attention and was good for a laugh. I highly reccomend the movie for conversation sake if nothing else.
Rating:
Summary: A Tragically Poignant Comedy. If That Makes Sense.
Review: I've seen 'Pumpkin' several times, and each time is a new experience for me, if that didn't sound too cliche. There are so many hidden meanings and underlined symbolisms, and when you can pull of such an off-the-wall story plot mixed with dark, almost-not-there comedy so smoothly (As I think the movie did), you deserve to be praised. It's message is an important, rather touchy one, but is conveyed in comical and relatable situations. The movie gets the usually hard to digest point across swimmingly. On another note, the music, by Belle and Sebastian, Emiliana Torrini, and others, fits perfectly with the story's theme. BRAVO!
Rating:
Summary: Not for the literal-minded
Review: As with most things brilliant, this film is misunderstood by the simple. If you take this film and the love between Caroline Duffy and Pumpkin Romanoff literally, you should justifiably be offended and disgusted. The metaphor in a nutshell -- Pumpkin represents pain. When Caroline is finally introduced to pain and embraces all it has to teach her, she sheds the vacuous shell of a person she was and begins her evolution into a truly thinking, feeling, and enlightened being. That's my kind of love story. Oh, and did I mention it's hilarious?
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