By: debbie lynn elias
Starring wide-eyed Jake Gyllenhaal as the innocent and utterly appealing 17 year old Jimmy Livingston, and Heather Graham look-alike Marley Shelton as the girl-next-door-object-of- his-affection, Chloe, first time director Blair Hayes puts a fresh spin on a tale of love conquering all.
Born with Immune Deficiency Syndrome, Jimmy has lived his entire life in a room size zip-loc plastic bubble designed to safeguard his immune deficient body from germs. Despite never having left his suburban home in sunny Palmdale, California, Jimmy has had a full, well-rounded life (not!) thanks to his loving, over-protective, religious zealot of a mother who uses Jimmy’s IDS to keep him from experiencing or even realizing the “horrors” of the heathen world in which we live. In possibly the most inane and insanely funny role of her long career, Swoosie Kurtz, is exquisitely evil as a demented, sex-phobic, June Cleaver-type mom, baking crucifix-shaped cookies for Jimmy and reading him fairy-tales with improvised endings about the hero “who touched the whore next door and died” (Pinocchio) or “who tried to leave the house and died” or “who didn’t listen to his mommy and died.” But alas, as hard as a parent might try, little boys grow up to be big boys with hormones raging and recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance on arousal will not cure this.
Enter the virgin Chloe, relative new girl to the neighborhood who, despite stories from her peers, enters the Livingston home in search of Jimmy. Rather than be appalled by their differences, Chloe takes an immediate liking to Jimmy when she hears him sing the theme song from that television classic “Land of the Lost” – a favorite show to them both. (Can’t you just hear the violin-playing Slestacks now?) The two become fast friends, sharing every moment together, baking in the sun shining through the bedroom window, playing guitar, having Halloween masquerade parties, decorating the bubble and celebrating Christmas, New Years and birthdays, and of, course, watching “Land of the Lost.” But, despite their friendship and obvious desire for one another, something will always stand in their way (besides Mrs. Livingston) – Jimmy’s plastic bubble. Needless to say, the inevitable happens and Chloe leaves town to marry the neighborhood Neanderthal.
Determined not to lose the girl of his dreams and being the resourceful guy that he is, Jimmy builds himself a bubble suit and sets out on a 3 day journey to Niagara Falls to stop the wedding and reclaim his love. Having no money and looking quite alien, Jimmy must depend on the kindness of strangers as he hitchhikes across the American mid-west. Befriended by “Bight and Shiny” religious cultists all named Lorraine or Todd, a Chicano biker played by veteran bad guy, Danny Trejo, a Hindi ice cream-and-curry-truck vendor, Chinese-American mud wrestlers, as well as circus freaks galore, Jimmy’s 1950’s Jerry Lewis-like innocence and lack of cynicism, is refreshing, endearing and funny.
Director Hayes and first time writers, Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio, who are teamed with “Private Parts” writing veteran, Michael Kalesniko, spare no one and nothing with their unabashed look at society in this very funny, very un-politically correct film. From Jews to Christians to Hindus to cultists to punk-rockers, right-wingers, left-wingers, Whites to Blacks to Chicanos to Asians, no stone is left unturned as the tunnel vision of protest and advocacy groups and fanatics alike is exposed in living color. From old-as-the-hills jokes and slurs to hilarious visual send-ups, this creative team shows once again that laughter is the best medicine.
Although boycotted by the Immune Deficiency Foundation and Carol Demaret, the mother of 12 year old Texas boy who suffered from IDS and on whom the 1976 telemovie “Boy In the Plastic Bubble” starring John Travolta was based, “Bubble Boy” is not a mockery of those afflicted with disease or disability. Rather, it is a celebration of life and the human spirit shown through the eyes of a charming innocent who transcends his disabilities and the prejudices of the world to follow his heart and inspires us to do the same.
Sweet, charming, surprising, inspirational and funny. “Bubble Boy” is pure Disney gold.
