The Mighty

“You need a brain, I need legs – and the Wizard of Oz doesn’t live in south Cincinnati.”

This is said by a handicapped child named Kevin to a tall boy named Max, in the 1998 movie, “The Mighty.” They’re both in seventh grade in Cincinnati – Max for the third time – and they’re both loners.

Roger Ebert pointed out in his review, “Max, known to his cruel classmates as the Missing Link, feels like Godzilla as he lumbers down the school corridors, and says, “Sometimes seems like the whole world has just seen me on `America’s Most Wanted.’”” Kevin has Morquio’s syndrome, which causes his bones to stop growing despite his organs continuing to grow, until finally, with what is said in the movie, “his heart will get too big for his body.” Ebert said, “Kevin and Max are the heroes of Freak, the Mighty, a best-selling children’s book by Rodman Philbrick that has been embraced by kids who feel they stand out like sore thumbs. (And what kid doesn’t?)” This is a story about how two friends can work together to stand up to everyone, and it’s about how Kevin’s example helps Max fix a life that started when his father murdered his mother.

At first, it’s not a friendship that will end up being close. Kevin moves in next door to Max, who spies across the back fence at the little kid, who wears braces and glasses, test flies a model flying machine he calls an “Ornothopter” (“I gave birth to a 7½-pound dictionary,” his mother says with a sigh). In gym class, a bully, played by Joe Perrino, throws a basketball to knock Kevin off his crutches, and Max is blamed for that. Strange when Max goes for remedial reading lessons and finds out that Kevin is his tutor. “I didn’t throw the basketball,” Max tells Kevin, who calls Max a chump for taking the blame for someone else.

They read King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and it is Arthurian courage that Kevin believes will help their friendship. Soon they arrive at a deal that will help them both out: Kevin rides on Max’s shoulders, and they even play basketball that way. Ebert noted, “The extra height is great for lay-ups. (Did the book’s author see “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome,” where another giant and another dwarf teamed up to create the character Master-Blaster?)” We meet their dependents. Kevin’s mother, played by Sharon Stone, struggles to keep Kevin out of “special schools” and help him lead the fullest possible life. Max’s grandparents, Gram and Grim (Gena Rowlands and Harry Dean Stanton) are raising him, not without love, after his mother’s murder and his father (the late James Gandolfini) with to prison.

Ebert pointed out, “The last third of the movie involves derring-do that’s highly improbable, especially a makeshift toboggan ride.” However, for the children audiences the movie is targeted at, these journeys will be exciting and not too violent, and they do give both boys a chance to use the code of the Round Table in their lives.

“The Mighty” is an emotionally touching movie (Ebert noted, “much like the recent and somewhat similar “Simon Birch,” which is about a friendship between a fatherless boy and a dwarf”). It is a little stronger in its main theme, which is we all have flaws, we are not perfect, but together we can be more than the total of ourselves.

Much of the film’s charm comes from the performance. Ebert mentioned, “Elden Henson, with his big, round Scandinavian face and football lineman’s body, brings a shyness and vulnerability to Max. He’s stronger than the bullies who pick on him, but he has retreated into himself.” Kieran Culken, as Kevin, looks like his older brother Macaulay but doesn’t play the cute kid as much and has a nice unsentimental persona when he levels with Max. Finally, the adults sensitively do what their roles ask without trying to steal the movie from the protagonists. (There’s also a nice supporting role for Gillian Anderson as a woman whose stolen purse sets up the movie’s climax.) Ebert said, “What I liked most about the movie is the way it shows that imagination can be a weapon in life.” At the first reading lesson, Kevin tells Max that every word is part of a picture, every sentence is a picture, and you put them all together in your head, if you have an imagination. Max has never thought of that, and when reading about King Arthur is taken to a place outside his basement bedroom and lonely school life, and learns of decency and romance. No child is completely a prisoner of a sad childhood if he can read and has books. They are the key to what can be, and that is the main message of “The Mighty.”

I remember when I was a kid, I saw my brother watching this movie. I don’t know if he got it from the library, or Blockbusters, or if it was maybe playing on TV, but I remember seeing a little bit of the film with him. I had completely forgotten about this movie for years until a few years back, I looked up online a movie about a kid who dies of an enlarged heart and “The Mighty” came up. I didn’t know this was based on a book, but when I saw this film on YouTube, I thought this was really good and very emotional. No one seems to talk about this and it is very underrated. Check it out and see for yourself. You will love this movie, I promise.

Next week I will end “Sharon Stone Month” with the “Basic Instinct” sequel. Never heard of it? Neither did I until I looked it up and you’ll see what a mess of a sequel it was next week.