Mary Stuart Masterson plays mentally ill girl who lives with her brother. His life is reduced to work and taking care of ill sister, without any privacy or dedication to himself and his own life and future. And then in their lives enter Johnny Depp in role of weird semi-literate boy, fan of Chaplin and Keaton, and Oscar winning Julianne Moore in role of local waitress. Nothing pretentious, pretty much predictable, but sincere, strong, romantic and most of all fun..............................................

Small town auto mechanic Benny Pearl (Aidan Quinn) dutifully takes care of his mentally ill sister Joon (Mary Stuart Masterson). He can't keep a house cleaner because of her. Then Joon loses a poker game bet, and they have to take in the other card player's oddball cousin Sam (Johnny Depp). He's a Buster Keaton fanatic. She's a painter. And Benny's life is stuck in neutral taking care of Joon.MSM is playing Joon as an unabashed quirky character. It doesn't feel authentic. She's supposed to be problematic, but other than the fire thing, she doesn't seem to be that big of a problem. Same goes for Johnny Depp. He's already innately charming. It doesn't fit that he's driving his cousin insane. This is a cute movie where Johnny Depp is having all kinds of fun. There is a more dramatic romance from Benny and the waitress Ruthie (Julianne Moore) if they could let it out. Sam and Joon generate not that much heat. Until the third act, there was little drama.

I should have wrote this review about a month ago when i first saw the movie however i kept just putting it off for no reason. So Johnny Depp is the " man " I'm serious and this film shows his acting skills through dialogue , feelings , emotions and movements. I know its not like his other more popular movies like Pirates of the Caribbean , Edward Scissorhands and others but this one has a special place. This movie is all about loving each other and taking care of another person like Benny was trying to do for joon - I was trying to figure were his mind was at for majority of the film and I'm glad of the outcome because you could tell what his feelings toward Sam were overtime of the film. Joon was very interesting herself - mentally ill yet so artistic seems only right her and a guy like BuStEr kEaToN ( Sam ) would have a connection. I also really liked the scene of them trusting each other and feeling comfortable enough to make real love with one another . In my opinion it was great not seeing private parts it was not needed for the movie , If they would have shown skin it would have seemed to romantic or to open or to pushy or trying to hard for that scene.Its so obvious that Depp did a great job as this quirky / silly / warm hearted / caring / unique character. Benny & Joon's actors also give a good performance I'm not sure how well Aiden and MsM ( Mary s masterson ) would / have done in other movies but in this one they do well and even better when in scenes with Depp. Also I loved the song " 500 miles" they used in the beginning and ending which matched perfectly and had the song in my head all night ! This movie has an amazing three characters and actors -1= some what plays the straight man Benny who changes - 2 = mentally ill yet creative Joon and 3 = wonderful and different one of a kind Sam a guy like buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin ,soundtrack great and overall a happy movie with tons of laughs till the last scene. My family ( even my mom who dislikes a lot of movies loved this one) - especially the ending of this quirky / cute / comedy movie. I recommend this movie go watch it !!

I would say this film was pretty much a cliché. Two strange people fall in love in this mainstream society. But there were some interesting aspects: for example, there was not too many mushy-mushy moments of verbally expressing love (I really can't stand that in films!); also, the actors were believable and did not over do it. But overall, the film didn't give any insight on new ideas and just focused on a standard topic of "forbidden love", and was pretty much predictable all the way till the end just like all Hollywood films. As a Johnny Depp fan, I don't regret watching it, but it is not a movie I would recommend to anyone.