Review of Mask (1985) by Sean W — 27 Jan 2009

Everyone is so nice in MASK. The Bikers, well you could easily take them home to meet your parents as outside of drinking some beer and being kind of noisy, they seem more like Boy Scouts than Bikers. Sure Eric Stoltz's character is met with a few nasty remarks, but he quickly wins everyone over with his charm. In school, he stands up and shows how infinitely smart he is. Funny...last time I was in school standing up and showing how infinitely smart you were resulted in more mocking and being made fun of -- here it makes him cool. Conveniently he falls for a blind girl whose parents are the only people in this entire film who show any sort of animosity towards Rocky (although there is a Carnival employee and later a high school student who also make comments).

Cher is good....but this whole movie is just so dripping with sentimentality and the "hey look, I may have a disfigurement, but ultimately I'm more human than the rest of you" thing going for it that it just is too good to be true. Granted, you do feel sympathy for the kid and his plight.