Product Details

• Actors: Christina Ricci, Hank Harris, Brenda Blethyn, Dominique Swain, Marisa Coughlan
• Directors: Adam Larson Broder, Anthony Abrams
• Writers: Adam Larson Broder
• Producers: Christina Ricci, Albert Berger, Andrea Sperling, Betsy Danbury, Francis Ford Coppola
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• VHS Release Date: November 5, 2002
• Run Time: 113 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (121 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00006IUNL
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #336,827 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Pumpkin scores bonus points for risk-taking satire, but it’s the right movie made by the wrong people. Despite an able assist from star and coproducer Christina Ricci, first-time codirectors (and USC film-school graduates) Anthony Abrams and Adam Larson Broder lack the delicate touch required to pull off a comedic romance between an idealistic sorority girl (Ricci) and the semi-retarded, physically challenged boy nicknamed Pumpkin (Hank Harris) whom she’s paired with as part of her sorority’s image-boosting charity campaign. The movie boldly addresses the taboos and condescension typically applied toward the disabled in movies and hits its satirical targets (social elitism, campus hypocrisy) while undermining the "Jerry’s Kids" stereotype of so-called "special" people. It’s a valiant effort, but the strengths of Pumpkin are overwhelmed by its ineptitude, with poor character development, choppy plotting, and rampant inconsistencies. Its many flaws aside, Pumpkin deserves credit for trying something new, difficult, and altogether challenging. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My interpretation..., June 2, 2006

By 

J. F. Rick "bricoleur, hobbit" (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pumpkin (DVD)

If you'll notice, this movie gets incredibly mixed reviews with some people hailing it as "Brilliant!" while others call it exploitive or horribly uneven. I have a theory that can reconcile these two interpretations.

(Spoilers ahead) My interpretation is simple: Carolyn succeeds at suicide. The rest of the movie, after the suicide attempt, is simply her imagined happy ending as she slips into the beyond.

This perspective explains many of the problems others have with the movie. A common complaint is that the ending does not match the beginning. But, if the ending is Carolyn's fantasy, it doesn't have to. Until the suicide episode, the movie plays out as a dark comedy. Brenda Blethyn chasing Christina Ricci while shouting "you raped my son!" is as funny as anything Heathers offers. After the suicide episode, Pumpkin becomes a farce. The fight and Ken's redemption after his car accident is incredibly funny as farce. Ken becomes Pumpkin's coach in no time at all! Given a realistic timeline, this could never have happened. But, as a dream of Carolyn's, this makes perfect sense. The farce is picking on the cliched plot devices of melodramatic made-for-TV movies.

I enjoyed both the beginning and ending of this movie, but only if I view it from this angle. Then, it actually becomes a consistent movie. It is a dark comedy throughout. Is there anything more darkly comedic than Carolyn's farcical death dream?

Like Adaptation, the movie does not confine itself to a single reality. So, it can be confusing for audience members who are used to the one-reality convention. If there is a flaw to Pumpkin, it is that the filmmakers are a bit too subtle about the transition. I didn't arrive at this interpretation until the day after I saw the movie for the first time.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ...Who can you laugh at?, November 21, 2002

By 

Celeste Wetzel - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pumpkin (DVD)

First off, a minor correction for the offical review of this film. These two may be first time co-directors, but this wasn't their first film. They're the writing team behind "Dead Man on Campus".

And no, a lot of people aren't going to like this movie. If you liked "But I'm a Cheerleader", you'll probably love it. I did. The characters are drawn in much the same way: earnest, but completely lunatic.

The subject matter is also, like 're-orienting' queerfolk, generally considered not appropriate comedy material, and as such, there are some folks who will hate this movie no matter how the subject is approached, because there "just isn't anything funny about the mentally disabled". I thought it did a good job of staying between the sort of flat-out mean fun that "Something About Mary" made of disabled kids, and the smarmy "our poor wounded angels" attitude so many people adopt when portraying the mentally disabled. This movie treats their subjects like normal people - some of them are mean, some of them are nice, some of them are better than others.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Genius, August 8, 2002

By 

"nyushoegazer" (New York, NY and California) - See all my reviews

I've never seen anything like "Pumpkin," and I doubt I ever will. It is a movie so multi-layered and so sophisticated in its apparent and deceiving simplicity that it's likely to go over the head of moviegoers used to the same old simplistic commercial fodder.

I can tell you three things about this film: 1. The closer you look and analyse it, the funnier and more meaningful it becomes 2. It's impossible to pidgeonhole or put in a box and that's all critics do these days and so it is probably one of the most underrated films in a long time 3. Appreciation and a following for this film will grow through the years as people see it as a daring and provocative piece of art and not a missfired attempt at satire.

I've seen Pumpkin three times and I'm betting that this film will become a classic and will reappear at your local retro theater in years to come.