Are You With Us?
Bubble Boy
By Shalimar Sahota
January 28, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Starring – Jake Gyllenhaal (Jimmy Livingstone), Marley Shelton (Chloe), Swoosie Kurtz (Mrs. Livingston), Danny Trejo (Slim), John Carroll Lynch (Mr. Livingston), Verne Troyer (Dr. Phreak), Dave Sheridan (Mark), Brian George (Push Pop)
Length – 80 minutes
Cert – 12 / PG-13
Jimmy Livingston (Gyllenhaal) was born without an immune system. Catching a single germ could kill him. So he's had to live his entire life within a protective plastic bubble under the watchful eye of his hyper-religious mother (Kurtz), who bakes him soy-based, germ-free, fat-free fiber cookies in the shape of fish and crosses. While he's been growing up, he's had a crush on his next-door neighbour Chloe (Shelton). Unfortunately for him, she is about to go to Niagara Falls to get married to her boyfriend Mark (Sheridan). So Jimmy decides to escape, building a bubble suit to protect himself from the outside, and sneaks off in an effort to stop the wedding and declare his love.
Written by Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul (both responsible for scripting Horton Hears a Who!), they're highly likely to have been inspired by the real life bubble boy, David Vetter. There was even a "made-for-TV" drama based on Vetter's life, "The Boy in the Plastic Bubble", released in the 1970s with John Travolta in the lead. However, Bubble Boy is in no way a serious drama.
It's a little difficult to work out who exactly the target audience is supposed to be. One could easily be misled into thinking that this is a family film, especially after glancing at the poster, which in all honesty just looks dumb, though it would be difficult to come up with a better one. Like a carbon copy of Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, with extra doses of dodgy humour, the lead character goes on an adventure with a one-track mind to reach their destination. What the film lacks in deep story it makes up for with absurd scenarios.
Any parents that took their little ones to see this most probably walked out after the first five minutes, at which point we see the lead character with an erection (Gyllenhaal has mentioned that he's often asked if it was real). If you're put off by that, then you're more likely to find this offensive than funny, with toilet humour a little too risqué for the under 12 set, though it's no big secret that they actually love that kind of thing.
The nature of the humour borders closely upon controversial, as the film takes shots at those who are deeply religious, poking fun at Christians, Jews and Hindus. Even those who are strong on animal welfare or those who are disabled aren't safe. Like a cartoon, it is completely and utterly ridiculous. There's also little in the way of bad language as the film tries to get away with as much as possible without going into R-rated territory.
At a very lean 80 minutes (including the credits), director Brian Hayes revealed that a number of scenes were trimmed to keep the focus on Jimmy. Even Marley Shelton is well established to begin with, but like the rest of the supporting players, she isn't really in the film all that long. Also fair play to Disney and Touchstone Pictures for releasing it at all, rather than running scared, ordering cuts and rewrites.
The PG-13 rating and humour would have put families off, while the older generation was likely to have been deterred by how childish it looks, which might explain why it bombed at the box office. With a production budget of just $13 million, the film failed to even recoup that. One of four wide releases during August 2001, along with Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, John Carpenter's Ghost's of Mars and Summer Catch; Bubble Boy performed the worst out of all of them. Ranking at #13 with a opening weekend take of $2 million, it clearly didn't last long and ended its run at just a touch over $5 million. It was sold to only a handful of international markets, leaving it with no chance of making a profit.
Hayes hasn't directed any other feature films since, possibly because of the poor box office results, or maybe he would just struggle to try and top this. However, writers Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul have since moved to animation to realise their outlandish ideas, attracting Steve Carell to play a super villain in their upcoming, sure-to-be-big, Despicable Me.
The revelation here is that for a film that comes across as a short burst of mindless entertainment, it turns out to be just as uplifting as it is hilarious. Although an early role, it is Jake Gyllenhaal's only foray in comedy, proving that he should really do more of it. And any film where Marley Shelton calls herself a bitch is fine with me, which should be another hint that watching this requires more suspension than you're often obligated to disbelieve in.