The second film from 1998 about a set of outcasts who have formed a deep friendship to counter the cruel and often callous remarks and attitudes of the less than enlightened in their world, "The Mighty" isn't as effective as "Simon Birch," but may still please some viewers. How you'll respond will depend on whether you've already seen that adaption of John Irving's novel, and how well you'll accept the heavy symbolic and fantasy use of Arthurian elements throughout this film.
While the picture was reportedly sitting on the shelf for some time (meaning it should have beaten "Birch" to the theaters), it's also highly reminiscent of the 1980 film, "My Bodyguard," where a small for his age kid befriends and hires a large and sullen outcast -- with a rumored murder in his family -- to protect him from the local bullies (led by a young Matt Dillon).
As the saying goes, of course, all of the stories that can be told have already been done, and that all we're left with is the possibility of variants to those stories. Even so, and despite the fantasy type elements injected throughout it, this film -- based on Rodman Philbrick's 1993 novel, "Freak The Mighty" -- never feels completely fresh nor ever really manages to take the material and make it something special.
Interestingly, some of that stems from the fact that young newcomer Ian Michael Smith ("Simon") auditioned first for the lead character for this film, but lost out to Kieran Culkin (yes, the little brother to Macaulay "Home Alone" Culkin). While both effectively play a diminutive child suffering from dwarfism -- the character here suffers from Morquio's Syndrome, while Smith the actor actually has that -- you can't help but compare the two performances and obviously Culkin comes off looking like he's acting.
Beyond that, director Peter Chelsom ("Funny Bones") and screenwriter Charles Leavitt ("The Sunchaser") have attempted to maintain semblances of Philbrick's novel by not only including the obligatory voice over narration (that's very novel-like and often tiresome), but also by breaking up the movie into titled chapters ("Chapter One: Dinosaur Brain," "Chapter Five: The Shortest Knight of the Year," etc...).
While mildly cute, that cinematic device certainly isn't needed, but I suppose the filmmakers weren't too concerned with making a "serious" drama, what with all the Arthurian material interjected throughout the story.
In fact, the film would have benefitted more had Chelsom and company gone strongly in one direction or the other with such material. The "sightings" of Arthur and all of Kevin's talk about him, his knights and Camelot are obviously symbolic (Max using a manhole cover like a shield, etc...), and the film even includes a modernized, medieval influenced soundtrack. However, if one's actually going to use such material, why not take it all the way?
As it stands, one never quite gets a feel for how such elements are to be interpreted. Sometimes the characters seem to see such visions, whereas at others only the audience sees them, resulting in that whole fantasy element being weakened because of that. It probably would have been much more fun -- not to mention effective -- had such medieval characters been prominent, and not only created by a fertile mind, but also present to guide the protagonists through their quandary.
Speaking of those characters, both Elden Henson (also know as Elden Ratliff in the "Mighty Ducks" movies) and Kieran Culkin (the "Father of the Bride" movies) do okay jobs in their respective roles, although the latter's similarity of a combination of his older brother and former kid actor Corey Haim continued to bother me throughout the movie.
That, the obvious fact that his physical condition is faked (compared to Smith in "Simon Birch"), and his artificial-feeling precociousness collectively prevented me from feeling anything for the character. While I know I was supposed to, the character never grabbed me as everything about him felt too purposefully constructed and manipulative.
The supporting characters, for the most part, are decent. Sharon Stone ("Basic Instinct," "Last Dance") is good in her less than glamorous role as the compassionate mother who must accept her child's fate, and her performance earned her a Golden Globe nomination.
Gena Rowlands ("Hope Floats") and Harry Dean Stanton ("She's So Lovely") are okay in their supportive roles, while James Gandolfini ("Fallen") is appropriately menacing as the deranged (and homicidal) father, but can't do much with his one-dimensional character. Meanwhile, "X- Files" fans will get a kick out of watching the nearly unrecognizable Gillian "Scully" Anderson playing wife to singer, and sometime actor, Meatloaf.
One of the film's weakest elements involves the marauding gang members who don't quite cut it as terribly menacing villains (despite the ever present switchblade). Less than effectively fronted by their leader, Joseph Perrino ("Sleepers"), they hardly seem a match for Max's size and girth. As presented, and despite his initial passive demeanor, one swat from him would easily send the "gang" stumbling and tumbling like a row of lightweight dominoes. Besides, they appear more as a simple plot device than as real troublemaker kids with a grudge against our two protagonists.
That pretty much sums up the film for me. Despite the initially intriguing, but certainly not original premise, the picture never feels natural. Instead, everything feels forced as if the filmmakers read the "dramatic, but ultimately uplifting tearjerker" manual and knew just when to press the appropriate buttons.
As far as the disc's visual and aural qualities, they're good but certainly not of demonstration caliber (especially the video that occasionally suffers from pixelation problems). The two added supplemental features, while better than nothing, don't offer much in the way of anything substantial (with one being around four minutes long and the other focusing on a music video inspired by the film).
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