Review of Simon Birch (1998) by Malia S — 30 Mar 2009

[CENTER]Simon Birch[/CENTER].

Morquio syndrome is a rare type of dwarfism which causes certain symptoms such as abnormal heart development, abnormal skeletal development, hyper mobile joints, large fingers, knock-knees, widely spaced teeth, bell shaped chest, compression of spinal cord and enlarged heart (?MPS IV?). Simon Birch was born with this disease. The movie was made in 1998, directed by Mark Steven Johnson. The movie is based off of a book titled A Prayer for Owen Meany written by John Irving. It is a story of a young boy and his best friend living in the 1960?s. Basically, Simon?s outlook on life is that God has a special plan for him, and he?s trying to make others around him realize it. Simon?s best friend Joe learns important life lessons from Simon. The three main reasons I loved this movie are Simon?s undying humor, Ian Michael Smith?s portrayal of Simon Birch?s faith, and the fact that Joe treated Simon as if he were perfectly normal despite his condition.

First of all, there are many moments in the movie where you forget that Simon is different from everyone else and has a life-threatening disease. For Example, Simon has great humor. He is always cracking jokes with his best friend Joe. One example of Simon?s Humor occurs when he and Joe go swimming. The water is very cold and Joe says to Simon ?My balls just turned into marbles!? Simon replies ?My balls just turned into bee bees!? Simon obviously says this because he is much smaller than Joe and in a way is making light of his own situation. Another example of Simon?s humor occurs when Simon and Joe are riding a bike together. Joe has a bike with a wooden side cart attached to it for Simon to ride in, and when two elderly men see Simon in this side cart, they laugh and make a comment on how small Simon is. Instead of Simon getting upset about their comment, he laughs and he and Joe give the elderly men the middle finger and tell them to have a nice day. Throughout the whole movie, there are many phrases and situations that automatically cause a smile.

Secondly, Simon Birch is played by a boy named Ian Michael Smith. Ian had the same disorder as the character he played in the movie, and eventually, shared the same fate as Simon Birch. Ian?s acting in the movie is very uplifting. Even towards the end when it?s clear he won?t live much longer, Simon still has his humor and his faith. For example, ever since doctors said Simon?s birth was a miracle, Simon thinks he is going to be a hero and that god has a special plan for him. Everyone either ignores him or laughs at Simon for thinking this, but he never stops telling people about his purpose. For example, Simon gets into trouble at church one morning because he speaks up in front of the whole church and tells the reverend off. The reverend sends all of the kids to Sunday school. When class was over Simon was told to stay after until he is ready to apologize. When the reverend comes in the room to see if Simon is ready to apologize, Simon is sitting in the corner. The reverend asks Simon what he was doing and Simon told him he was thinking about God. The reverend replied ?In the corner? and Simon replied ?Faith is not in a floor plan?. This is one of my favorite quotes in the movie because Simon is showing he has more faith than his own reverend. Simon believes you can have faith and pray to God no matter where you are. When the reverend leaves Simons teacher Ms. Leavy tries to tear him down. Ms. Leavy says to Simon, ?Your parents don?t go to church do they, see that?s because they don?t belong here and neither do you?. She also says to him ?Speaking out of turn, telling the other children God has a special plan for you, what kind of nonsense is that?? Even though she says this to Simon he still holds on to his faith. Toward the end of the movie, before Simon passes away, he does become a hero. He ends up saving a bunch of little kids from drowning in a sinking bus. What I really liked about it was that the kids listened to Simon and not to Joe. It seems like they only listened to Simon because he was small like them. I believe Michael?s acting is very good in all of these scenes because his acting draws the viewer in and almost makes the viewer feel the emotion he is showing while acting.

Lastly, Simon?s best friend Joe is another reason why I loved this movie. No matter what, Joe stood by Simon through everything. Girls looked at Simon as cute, like a baby, and most of the boys made fun of him for being small, but Joe didn?t care about that. Joe treated him like a brother, never judging him, and always sticking up for him. Even when Simon may do something to hurt Joe, he still befriends him. For example, Simon and Joe play together on a baseball team. Simon is always told never to swing at the ball, that way he can at least walk to first base. One day Simon?s coach tells Simon he can swing at the ball. Simon gets extremely excited because he can finally show people he can hit the ball. Simon swings and hits the ball directly at Joe?s mom. The ball hits her right in the temple, and instantly kills her. After all that pain and loss, Joe doesn?t blame Simon. Joe knew Simon loved his mother just as much as he did and he knew how sorry Simon was. Simon?s parents didn?t love Simon because of his disorder, so Joe?s mother treated Simon like her own. She loved Simon and stuck up for him all of the time. When Simon killed her he was devastated. He felt like he lost his own mother. Joe Knew Simon lost a loved one as well and forgave him and was thankful to have such a great best friend.

In conclusion, Simon Birch is a terrific movie. From beginning to end, this movie will bring anyone to tears, both because of the young boy?s struggle, and the constant humor. There are a lot of reasons as to why this movie is so good, but I believe the main reasons are Simon?s spirit, faith and humor, Ian Smith?s joyful acting, and Joe?s ability to see past Simon?s disorder. This movie is very heart-warming, funny, uplifting, and most of all, true.