Pumpkin (2002)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

The setup: Perky, perfect Carolyn and her Alpha Omega Pi sisters plan to win Sorority of the Year by impressing the Greek Council with a killer charity: coaching mentally challenged athletes for the regional Challenged Games. When Carolyn's assigned to coach Pumpkin she's terrified at first, but soon sees in him something she's never seen before: a gentle humanity and honest clarity that touches her soul. To the horror of her friends and Pumpkin's overprotective mother, Carolyn falls in love, becoming an outcast in the process. As Carolyn's "perfect life" falls apart, Pumpkin teaches her that perfect isn't always perfect after all.The verdict: Awesome!

"It's beyond classification." so says Roger Ebert. I'll agree to that, Pumpkin is a messI do not see what is to like about this film which is over directed, amateurishly written, and childishly acted. It is muddled and unfocused, and denies brains, humour and heart. One minute it is sappy and plushy, and the next it is sour and sleazy. The sheer yuckiness of this movie is offencive. This pumpkin is rotten and it stinks.The first step to repairing the movie is to fire Christina Ricci and hire someone who can act. Ricci's performance is absolutely dreadful, Why did she not receive a golden raspberry award. The next step to repairing this film would be to give it some direction. The central premise concerns Ricci's character falling in love with a disabled boy who she is tutoring, and their relationship starts to screw up her life and her local reputation. Why couldn't this movie have been a strait forward romantic/comedy? Simplicity is often the best approach right. Instead the movie tries to integrate three or four subplots which lead absolutely nowhere, and in an attempt to bring all the connections together, Pumpkin takes forever to end.I laughed once, maybe twice and that was it. If this is supposed to be a comedy, where is the humour? There is nothing remotely funny about this movie, nor is there anything charming, romantic, or original about it. It is an overdone, artificial wreck of a motion picture that belongs in the trash.

I loved it. If you loved The House of Yes or Legally Blonde, you'll love this film. I was really surprised to see rather low ratings for this film on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes, but I really think this is one of those sleeper films that will never be epic, but the story is great and it's an easy film to take-in. This is a comedy so dark, it makes Heathers appear vanilla in comparison. They stop at nothing to make a joke, which takes a huge risk of offending a number of viewers – and I admire that bravery. Many sites say the film is the most underrated in a decade.Basically, Christini Ricci has an Elle Woods-type "perfect" boyfriend, a perfect sorority life and a family who thrives on "status" when her sorority chooses to help disabled persons as their charity for the year. Each sister is assigned a person to help, and Ricci ends up falling in love with her "retard" (a word used a great deal throughout the movie), has sex with him and shatters her perfect life.A good portion of this movie certainly isn't politically correct, however, Ricci's character serves as the balance, making many of the dark elements laugh-out-loud hilarious. I probably could have lived without the West Side Story-style fight scene towards the end, but all-in-all, I think this is without a doubt a must-see film!

Movie starts out on a fairly even, believable keel and then subtly skews into some alternate universe. Believable, I guess due to the proliferation of chicks flicks, is the stereotype of the white girl with the 'perfect'life boyfriend etc whose greatest challenge in life is winning some sorority award. Unbelievable is the transition to self-discovery via a relationship that develops with a mentally challenged guy who does little more than stare at her initially. The girl's character fills in much of the formation of the relationship as though it were all happening in her head and the challenged character seems to comply and follow through independently. A key question is asked seemly innocently and then revisited at the movie's end "Caroline why does the moon ..change..?" Caroline asks in the end if pumpkin meant it literally or metaphorically to which he gives the audience's collective "What!?!?" reply. Not so much that the question is not understood but one is left wondering what that had to do with the overall message of the movie. It was as if to suggest that there be no real tangible reason why things happen the way they do.It is a touching movie, it is nice to believe that good things can happen to all people. I just think that the way it is told is a disservice to the audience.