Simon Birch (1998)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Simon Birch (Ian Michael Smith) was born with a deformity that left him very short. He is smart and challenges authority like Reverend Russell (David Strathairn). His biggest supporter is his best friend Joe Wenteworth (Joseph Mazzello)'s mother (Ashley Judd). Her new boyfriend is the friendly Ben Goodrich (Oliver Platt). However, Simon accidentally kills her when he hits a baseball that strike her dead. Simon believes that God has a plan for him. The boys go in search of Joe's biological father. When they find the baseball that killed Joe's mother, Joe smashes up the coach's office and they end up doing community service.I was with this movie until Rebecca's death. It screws up the tone. I was expecting the movie to go a bit darker after the death but it got even lighter. At times, the movie is trying too hard to be light and fluffy. The movie struggles to find the sweet spot with so many different aspects of the story. I'm not saying the Christmas play wasn't funny. I just don't know which way the movie is going from one section to the next.

Beautiful and underrated. If you need hope in life then watch this film. The love and friendship between a small boy and his town is moving and shows that belief in hope, no matter how many want you to fail is stronger than anything. Love yourself and others as though you are not separate and you will learn how to live happily. The directing is phenomenal and the dialog is fantastic. Regardless of what you hate about yourself, this film will teach you how to be grateful for the life you live. The narration by Jim is perfect and not once do you believe he is telling a "story." He is speaking of the strength it takes to put your faith in another's hands and never regretting it because the life lessons you learn.

I've read several people complaining about one part of the story that does not seem credible in the film, when "the mum dies after being hit on the head by a foul ball in a little league baseball game, hit by the weakest person in the world".The thing is, this is the only part of the film that is true to the book! As someone said, the book is 600 pages long and it's too difficult to make it into a movie, but not impossible so I hope that someday some director will take the challenge on.I thought the acting was very good, especially the two boys. Yes, why Jim Carrey was not credited?

This film should be watched by anyone and everyone. Its the story of Simon Birch, a young boy with a growth disorder who makes friends with Joe. Even though Birch kills his best friends Mum by firing a baseball at her head (accidentally) they still remain best of friends throughout the film, proving that friendship can surpass anything. But on a bus on a cold winters day the bus swerves and crashes into a river where Birch helps everyone get off the bus alive. He too gets off the bus alive yet dies in hospital some time later. This is a superb family with strong acting and, being a 16 year old guy im not scared to admit that it made me cry because it was so thought provoking and well acted that i believed what was happening. Superb stuff!