Classic Movie Review: 'Benny & Joon'

Benny & Joon (1993)

Directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik

Written by Barry Berman

Starring Aiden Quinn, Johnny Depp, Mary Stuart Masterson, Julianne Moore

Release Date April 23rd, 1993

Published June 7th, 1993

When Johnny Depp took on the role of looney romantic hero Sam in Benny & Joon he'd been engaged in a desperate effort to abandon the Teen Beat, leading man personas that Hollywood was attempting to impose upon him. Having become a teen idol on the teen cop show 21 Jumpstreet, Depp found the Hollywood spotlight overwhelming and limiting to his talent. Thus he set out to take roles that would defy expectations and reshape his career the way he wanted it.

This upending of expectations started in 1990 when Depp starred in the wild and wonderful John Waters indie flick, Crybaby. No one in Hollywood wanted one of the biggest heartthrobs in the world to work with John Waters and that's likely part of what drove Depp directly into the embrace of Waters and his wild 50s aesthete and outre humor. That same year, he defied expectations in the mainstream as well with an entirely unglamorous, but slightly more commercial friendly film, Edward Scissorhands.

Depp took that role specifically because he got to wear a lot of makeup and prosthetics and Hollywood marketers could not market the film based on his looks. This defiance of expectations continued as Depp took 1992 off and rejected high profile roles in blockbuster features. When he did decide to work again, he chose yet another defiantly odd and unconventional role. Despite still being one of the most sought after leading men in Hollywood, Depp accepted a supporting role in Benny & Joon while turning down the leading man role in the eventual blockbuster, Indecent Proposal.

The gamble paid off as Depp delivers some of his most charming and dynamic work in the role of Sam, even as he's not the leading man. Sam is a wildly unconventional bohemian film lover whose persona is based on silent film heroes such as Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. Depp takes this idea of a character and fills out the character with a mostly silent, terrifically physical performance. It's a role that threatens to be a little too twee, but Depp brings depth to the character by making the most of the few lines of dialogue the character has.

The Benny & Joon of the title are brother and sister, Benny played by Aiden Quinn, and Joon, played by Mary Stuart Masterson. Benny is the responsible older brother who owns a business and cares for his sister and her unspecified medical condition. Joon is an artist who is prone to manic episodes, depression, and jumble of other mental health afflictions that seem to indicate that she suffers from either Schizophrenia or is merely on the autism spectrum. It's a bit nebulous but the film is delicate about Joon's condition which helps keep it from being overly problematic.

The plot kicks in when Joon 'wins' Sam in a poker game by losing a hand. Sam's cousin, a friend of Benny's, cannot stand having Sam in his apartment, he finds Sam's silent movie persona and other aspects of his personality, insufferable. He bets a hand of cards with Joon, unbeknownst to Benny, and when he wins, Benny & Joon are forced to take in Sam. This actually proves to be a benefit to Benny and Joon as Joon needs a caretaker and their home needs a maid. Sam slots in as both and proves to be a dynamic presence in the home.

Naturally, this is leading to a romance between Sam and Joon but the movie doesn't linger much on their romance. Aiden Quinn's Benny is the lead in the movie and the film is about his awakening to a new way of seeing the world, a brighter more romantic and fun worldview. Through Sam, Benny begins to lighten up. However, he's still incredibly protective of Joon and part of his arc is learning to accept that his troubled little sister can survive and thrive on her own with someone other than him. He also begins to open up to the idea of his own romance with a waitress played by Julianne Moore.

Quinn isn't quite the movie star that Depp is but he's perfect for this role and this movie. He has a blue collar quality that provides a proper counterpoint to both Sam and Joon's weirdness. He grounds the story in the real world, freeing Depp and Masterson to explore their unusual romantic dynamic within a believable universe. Quinn's steadying presence, his salt of the earth quality, is just the right kind of performance to keep Benny & Joon from being an insufferably twee romance.

If people remember Benny & Joon they remember Depp's delightful riff on a classic silent movie routine involving a runaway hat. The scene is very sweet and quite funny even 30 years later. Just as delightful however, is Quinn's giddy response to Sam's performance in a park full of strangers. For a moment the stoic and steady Benny lights up and even tries a little of the physical comedy himself when no one is looking. It's a lovely moment, one that furthers our connection to Benny as a character who can easily exist alongside these two more dynamic and broad characters.

The most difficult performance in Benny & Joon belongs to Mary Stuart Masterson. She's playing a lot of conflicting emotions while also enacting an effort to show Joon is capable of being on her own. It's a performance that requires a great deal of range and depth and Masterson delivers for the most part. Her chemistry with Johnny Depp is a little off, they don't make for an explosive romance but they are very sweet as two oddball outcasts, one of whom happens to be suffering from a particularly explosive mental illness.

Director Jeremiah S. Chechik delivers a whimsical romance thanks to a wonderfully talented and charismatic cast who carry us over any potential minefields, especially in the area of how mental health is portrayed on film. Relying on the cast to make it all palatable is a smart play as Chechik's direction is mostly serviceable. He's had a strange career as a mainstream director having directed National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, a bizarre adaptation of the French thriller Diabolique with Sharon Stone, and a truly abysmal adaptation of the 60s television series, The Avengers, a piece of direction that earned him a Razzie nomination.

He's a director whose aesthetic is impossible to pin down. He doesn't seem to have a style of his own. His career is very curious as it includes broad grossout humor, twee romance, a pyscho-thriller, and an obscure television adaptation. Chechik is a peculiar figure, a director without distinction who is capable of delivering competent work and one who appears to work well with big stars whom he trusts implicitly to make his movies distinctive beyond his workmanlike direction.

Somehow, Chechik is the right director for Benny & Joon. This is unquestionably a showcase for actors. Quinn, Depp, and Masterson, along with a wonderful supporting cast of familiar faces such as Dan Hedaya, and Julianne Moore, deliver charming performances that just work. The movie is breezy, funny, romantic and lighthearted. Depp's performance, though it defies the conventions of a big star performance, is nevertheless indicative of why audiences have loved him. He's cute, he's funny, he's a little weird. He's a charmer and while time has changed how we see Depp's persona today, in 1993, that charm was on grand display in Benny & Joon.

Benny & Joon was recently the subject of my new podcast, a spinoff of the Everyone's a Critic Movie Review Podcast, Everyone's a Critic 1993. Myself and my co-hosts, teenager M.J, and Gen-Xer Amy, watch a movie from 30 years in the past in chronological release order. You can find the Everyone's a Critic 1993 Podcast on the Everyone's a Critic Movie Review Podcast feed wherever you listen to podcasts. We've had terrific success with the show thus far and we'd love your feedback. Leave a review of the show after you listen and we will happily read it on the show.

Find my archive of more than 20 years and nearly 2000 movie reviews at SeanattheMovies.blogspot.com. Find my modern review archive on my Vocal Profile, linked here. Follow me on Twitter at PodcastSean. Follow the archive blog on Twitter at SeanattheMovies. Listen to me talk about movies on the Everyone's a Critic Movie Review Podcast. If you have enjoyed what you have read, consider subscribing to my writing on Vocal. If you'd like to support my writing, you can do so by making a monthly pledge or by leaving a one-time tip.

New offer: I am now taking requests for movie reviews on my Ko-Fi Page. For $10.00 I will review any movie you suggest, within reason, it has to be available, and should be something I haven't written about before. I can't promise a positive review but I will make it as entertaining and informative as I possibly can. You can make your request via my Ko-Fi account, linked here. If you do, you will also get a shout out in my upcoming book, Horror in the 90s in which I am writing about wide release horror films from 1990 to 1999. I need financial support to make the book happen and you can be part of that here on Vocal or via Ko-Fi. Thanks!