1st watched 11/24/2005 - 7 out of 10(Dir-Adam Larson Broder & Tony R. Abrams): Mostly believable drama about a sorority girl(played by Christina Ricci) who goes out of her way to give special attention to a challenged(aka. mentally retarded) young man, falls in love with him and then faces the wrath of society for doing so. Ricci is wonderful as the confused girl who's been brought up thinking everything in life is wonderful until she meets Pumpkin, who's life is not altogether wonderful and she actually begins to feel the pain in her own life and the the pain that he's feeling. This movie starts out looking like a very corny comedy, but abruptly takes a serious note when Pumpkin, played by Hank Harris, comes onto the scene. The movie fights hard not to be too melodramatic and for the most part succeeds. Ricci's character, Carolyn, immediately starts having a dramatic effect on Pumpkin's social and physical abilities as he improves everyday in her presence and this is seen by those around her and jealousy and curiosity ensues. She begins to care for Pumpkin in a deep way and doesn't know how to handle this so, of course, she sees a shrink. He's not much help though and she's left to figure this all out by herself. The only annoying thing about this movie is it's many emotional twists&turns in direction, mainly coming from Carolyn's twists and turns in her own thinking, but this is bearable because of Ricci's appeal and the understanding that this character is being put through the wringer with her own emotions mainly because of her confused up-bringing and the reaction from people around her. A nice suttle tweak at the end gives us the impression that her confusion will continue, even though the viewers get to have their wanted happy ending. All in all, the weakness in this movie comes from the direction(being done by two individuals, maybe this was part of the problem) but the players, especially Ricci & Harris, rise above it to make a meaningful drama about societies confusion towards the challenged individual and the rift that is there between them and the rest of society.
