After 10 minutes, I was really afraid of the melodrama, the thousans violions of 90 % of the American movies. And we saw that a thousand times : movies with mental problem persons who are always so fine... (Le Huitième jour, Rain man, and also a film of the early 80's with Mickey Rooney - sorry, I don't remember the title!) But the simplicity of the whole thing charms me. The two young actors gives a superb performance. There are also very funny gags : the fanfare music that Danny loves and when Juliette Lewis looks in the book for sex positions). Perhaps the conservative aspects of the family irrates me a little bit : why in most American films the people have always to be rich and boring? A little bit of social reality should help this one. But I give a 7 out of 10 of this fine film. The best of the genre is Belgium's Le Huitième jour.

In this film, about a frustrated mother trying to cope with a mentally disabled daughter, there is a message for all of us - that we all need our independence and wish to fulfil our desires for happiness in our own way. Diane Keaton plays the role of Elizabeth the over protective mother in a most convincing performance - she shows all the desperation, the moods and emotions of a mother hoping to do the best for her child and suffering arguments and rebuffs at every turn. While Carla (Juliette Lewis)and her lover Daniel (Giovanni Ribisi) both disabled hold us in a state of nervous fascination,it is Diane Keaton who holds the storyline together. This is not a depressing film. On the contrary there are moments of humorous sexual exploration, numerous embarrassing situations and outright hilarity. A few of the scenes which I find particularly amusing are: The sweet innocence of the young couple reading a sex manual and earmarking the pages of appropriate positions, the initial introduction of Daniel in fancy dress as a large dog to Carla's parents and the church wedding in which church dogma is dispensed with and the couple "do it in their own way. The film is quite touching at times and some tears may appear, but in retrospect it is the joyous ending that seems to make everything right. And doesn't Diane Keaton look absolutely stunning in her magenta outfit with the big hat?

Okay, well I hired this not really expecting much. In fact, I only hired because I found out some of my favourite actors were in it. Overall, it was a cutesy, sweet and at times funny movie that was a bit of a tearjerker. The biggest problem I had was the under-development of pretty much every character except Carla and maybe the parents. With such an awesome supporting cast, the producers should have taken advantage of them. In the effort to develop Carla as the main character, everyone else just fell into the wayside. They became under-developed, under-used and all round, under-appreciated.

One character in particular that I felt fit this criteria was Jeff Reed, the fiancée of Caroline. His presence provided the perfect opportunity to see Carla from the point of view of an outsider. And it would have been really interesting to see how they interacted, as they had only just met. In the entire movie, they don't even speak to one another except for at the country club after his joke about the wedding being in New Zealand, and she corrects him, but even that moment feels incomplete and an opportunity is missed.

That is what sums up this movie for me, missed opportunities. A great premise which has somehow collapsed, a fantastic supporting cast that is hugely underused and some great moments that are ruined by amateur directing or editing. With the two mentally retarded characters,the acting is adequate but it just somehow seems to miss the target. Good effort but it all just falls apart.