Being a fan of the three main stars (Garofalo, Wood and Cook) led me to sit down and enjoy the movie which is "The Bumblebee Flies Anyway". Though not a movie I believe would appeal to mass audiences, the brilliant performances by all the actors involved made for a great film. Set in a ward for terminally ill children, the mistake of allowing for caricatured and melodramatic emotions/relationships was thankfully not made once. The basic plot: Barney(Elijah Wood) is a volunteer for an experiment run by Dr. Harriman(Janeane Garofalo) with no memory of his past. Being the only non-terminally ill kid in the clinic, Barney is warned to remain detached, but obviously that does not happen. He develops relationships with several of his fellow patients, and those are what make this a good movie. His romance with Cassie(Rachael Leigh Cook)is especially nice for its subtlety and lack of overt sexuality. Janeane Garofalo does a wonderful job with her role as the doctor who struggles with her own advice of detachment. Any person who claims to be a fan of her's needs to see this movie, for it allows us to see just how truly capable of an actor she is. I take away from this film the following question: is a peron's identity made up of the memories we collect throughout our lifetime or the relationships we make throughout and is life worth living without a sense of that identity?
Review of The Bumblebee Flies Anyway
The Bumblebee Flies Anyway
(1999)
Interesting plot with great acting performances.
14 September 2001