Simon Birch with Ian Michael Smith: DVD Cover

    Simon Birch Director: Mark Steven Johnson Cast: Ian Michael Smith, Joseph Mazzello, Ashley Judd, Oliver Platt

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    • DVD Release Date: 05/18/1999
    • Original Release: 1998
    • Rating: Rated PG
    • Sales Rank: 7,271

    Viewer Rating: (12 ratings)

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    Features

    Dolby Digital 5.1 audio; French-language track, Dolby Surround; Theatrical trailer; Chapter search

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    Editorial Reviews

    This comedy-drama features a narration by Jim Carrey, looking back to childhood in a manner similar to the narration on TV's The Wonder Years. The film is the directorial debut of writer Mark Steven Johnson, scripter of Grumpy Old Men and its sequel. Johnson adapted only a small portion of John Irving's 600-page novel A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989), but Irving requested a credit other than "based on" and also asked that the character name of Owen Meany be changed. So Owen became Simon Birch -- which then required a title change. In the title role is 11-year-old Ian Michael Smith, who is afflicted with Morquio's syndrome, a genetic disorder which causes dwarfism. The story begins when Joe Wenteworth (Jim Carrey) visits the grave of his childhood friend Simon Birch, whose stone is marked 1952-64. Joe explains that Simon is "the reason I believe in God." This is followed by a flashback to their friendship during the early '60s. In Gravestown, New Hampshire, young Joe Wenteworth (Joseph Mazzello) doesn't know who his father is, and his loving mother Rebecca (Ashley Judd) won't tell him. Joe's best buddy is young Simon Birch, born so tiny that his classmates pass him about like a "doll." Neglected at home, Simon turns to Rebecca as a surrogate mother, and he often has dinner with the Wenteworths. One night, Rebecca brings her friend Ben Goodrich (Oliver Platt) home for dinner, which annoys her crotchety mother (Dana Ivey). Later, the lives of the two 12-year-olds receive a cruel twist, and the two then become more curious to learn the secret of Joe's father. Shown in competition at the 1998 Montreal Film Festival. Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

    Customer Reviews

    Simon Birchby Anonymous

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    April 23, 2007: This movie is very loosely based on John Irving's delectable novel "A Prayer for Owen Meaney" and takes an incredible, layered, extraordinary work and reduces it to cutsey sight gags and manipulative platitudes. Everyone who saw this film and liked it, I feel it's safe to say, was lured in and charmed by the diminutive star into thinking the film was better than it actually was, since it seems cruel to down a film whose star is handicapped, for fear of confusing criticism of the film with criticism of the person. My advice is read the novel by John Irving and then come back to the film and see if you still think it's so great. I think you'll agree that the film doesn't even scratch the surface of the themes and content of the novel. It would have been better to have made a mini series in order to encompass the book since this film contains a fraction of what is contained there. I felt the same disappointment with the film adaptation of "Starship Troopers". There is another example where instead of making a deep, challenging, intelligent film based on a deep, challenging and intelligent novel, which is no less than it deserved, Verhoeven instead decided to take one small piece of the novel, and not even the most important piece, and blew it up to movie lenght leading one who hadn't read the novel to believe that that was all the novel was about, the bug wars, when in fact that element was rather small and only served to illustrate the novel's grander themes, i.e., what is freedom? What are the rights and responsibilities of "true" citizenship? Etc...Like ST, Simon Birch was a huge disappointment. I knew a big studio production would be, because Irving's novel as is, is not commercial. Still, this film failed even more miserably than even I expected.

    Simon Birchby Anonymous

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    January 21, 2007: this movie has a great story line to it. i thought it was very emotional at times and especially at the end i started to cry and feel sad.


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