Something is provocative about a boy living inside a bubble.
Maybe “Bubble Boy’s” appeal is merely because its star, Jake Gyllenhaal, is incredibly cute, but it could run a bit deeper than that — not much, though.
The movie, directed by Blair Hayes, is a remake of “The Boy in the Plastic Bubble,” starring John Travolta, that doesn’t hold a lot of intellectual appeal, but it is a mindless and sweet comedy that will help rest those aching brain cells from any extra activity for an hour and a half.
“Bubble Boy” also has incited protests from parents of children born without immunities that really have to live inside bubbles, stating that the movie makes light of a serious condition.
The movie is definitely insensitive, but not intentionally so. The writers would have actually had to have a modicum of talent to even achieve that goal.
Gyllenhaal, best known for starring in “October Sky,” plays the role of Jimmy Livingston who was born without any immunities and thus doomed to live forever insulated in plastic and isolated from the world. When Jimmy’s best friend Chloe, played by Marley Shelton, tells him she’s getting married in Niagara Falls, he decides to go after her to tell her how he really feels.
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Getting to New York proposes, naturally, a multitude of challenges that include running into nearly every freak in the United States. Jimmy’s first challenge is just getting out of his house by building a portable bubble suit and then escaping the stifling clutches of his ignorant, racist, Jesus-obsessed mother, played by Swoosie Kurtz. Mrs. Livingston feeds Jimmy strange religious object-shaped grain cookies, blatantly lies to Jimmy about the real world and makes horrible comments towards Jews, blacks and almost everyone else on the planet.
As if that’s not creepy enough, the innocent Jimmy meets several strange characters, such as a Hispanic biker, Chapa, played by Danny Trejo and a band of freaks led by the foulmouthed and crude Dr. Freak, played by none other than Verne Troyer. The thought that Troyer is a novelty actor that just might never go away is frightening, yet sobering.
In addition to being hunted down by a psychotically perky cult led by Gil, played by Fabio, and hitching two rides with a couple of old brothers prone to dying while escorting Jimmy to his preferred destination, the movie is merely a mocking monument to popular culture that actually deserves a chuckle or two.
To say that this movie has any true cinematic merit would be laughable, but the guy does get the girl and it’s fun to look at the adorable Gyllenhaal. Although it was disappointing that Kurtz’s character didn’t get hit by a truck at the end of the movie, we can’t always get what we want.
