I hadn't watched Benny & Joon in many, many moons. Loved it though, and after I'd written a review for it on Flixter I decided I needed to watch it again. So I had John pick it up for me on Saturday while he was in town.
I still love it, it's an amazing and beautiful story. I remember not having a lot of faith in it because at that time all I knew Johnny Depp from was 21 Jump Street. This movie made me a fan for life.
But this time around it was a bit different because I was watching from a drastically different perspective. Benny is the older brother of Joon, who is an adult with mild to moderate schizophrenia. Sam is an adult with at the very least learing disabilities perhaps a certain level of developmental delays. The movie deals with Benny's sense of responsibility toward Joon, Joon's desire to break out and be an independent adult and Sam's journey to find a place to belong.
As I watched, I started seeing Ian. I wondered if Ian will be able to break out on his own, live on his own. I wondered if he will find someone who will see past his "excentricities" to the wonderful, warm, loving person he is. Will he find a life partner, fall in love with someone who truly loves him back.
Then I started down the "Questioning My Parenting Competence Spiral of Doom". And MY loving life partner, in his effort to be supportive and sensative, got frustrated with me and told me I'm being ridiculous. Kinda shifted that spiral of doom into high gear. Men can be such sweet little dears.
So at some point I'll tell you all about my latest run in with the school. It's just oodles of frustration.
at 7:24 PM :: ~#~
