Benny & Joon Reviews
February 18, 2005
Original Score: 1/5
October 7, 2004
Great early Depp performance and Masterson is equally terrific
Original Score: 3/5
February 20, 2004
Original Score: 4/5
October 23, 2003
One of my favorite romances. Quirky and magical.
Original Score: 4/5
September 4, 2003
The stars make it palatable, but it's too much contrived cuteness.
Original Score: 3/5
July 18, 2003
3.5
Original Score: 3/5
May 20, 2003
Mr. Depp may look nothing like Buster Keaton, but there are times when he genuinely seems to become the Great Stone Face, bringing Keaton's mannerisms sweetly and magically to life.
March 2, 2003
Johnny Depp is superb, but the rest of the movie doesn't hold water.
Original Score: 2/5
October 4, 2002
Depp's portrayal of a Buster Keaton-ish type character is mesmerizing.
Original Score: 3/5
July 29, 2002
Original Score: 3/5
July 25, 2002
Stellar performances highlight a tale of goofball affection.
Original Score: 3/5
July 25, 2002
Original Score: 4/5
January 9, 2002
Awful as it sounds, the movie actually achieves a few poignant moments once it stops straining for eccentric charm.
May 12, 2001
The cast is defeated by a cloying Barry Berman script that Jeremiah Chechik directs with the same flair for the obvious he brought to National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.
January 1, 2000
[Chechik] has crafted Benny & Joon not as a seamless whole but as a tumble of scenes. Unfortunately, too many of them are inspired by Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd or Buster Keaton, and they seem to spill from the screen like Bozos from a kiddie car.
January 1, 2000
The movie suggests that love and magic can overcome madness, and for at least the length of the film I was prepared to accept that. Much of the credit for that goes to Depp...
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
January 1, 2000
Benny & Joon tries to get by on quirkiness alone, and, while something this offbeat frequently carries a unique kind of appeal, it needs stronger characters than Sam and Joon.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
January 1, 2000
Where the story does not work for me is on the contrivance and in the view of mental illness.
Full Review
| Original Score: 0 out of -4..+4
January 1, 2000
Benny & Joon wears its sensitivity on its sleeve and though it's a little hard to take at times, these actors make it all passable.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/5
January 1, 2000
Riddled with insufferably contrived zaniness ... it deals as deeply with mental illness as The Sound of Music explored the genocidal advance of the Third Reich.