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Simon Birch

1998

Mark Steven Johnson

Ian Michael Smith, Joseph Mazzello, Oliver Platt, David Strathairn ...

6.1

8,912

Drama Simon Birch believes that God made him for a special, heroic purpose. Simon and his best friend Joe Wenteworth are both outcasts in their tiny New England town: Joe is the illegitimate son of the town beauty, and Simon, at age 12, is so small that he still plays the infant Jesus in the church Christmas pageant. In the summer of 1964, friendship is put to the test when Little Leaguer Simon hits a foul ball that strikes and kills Joe's ... [+]

	Author	Review
United States	Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times	"Johnson creates a film so direct and engaging that cynicism wilts in its sunny spirit (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United Kingdom	William Thomas Empire	"A crudely manipulative, amber-hued cocktail of saccharine and horseshit (...) Rating: ★ (out of 5)"	NEG
United States	Michael O'Sullivan The Washington Post	"I was sobbing and bobbing like a baby in the back seat of a car-jacked sport utility vehicle on a rocky mountain road. And I was growing increasingly resentful with every maudlin, manipulative minute of it."	NEU
United States	Lisa Alspector Chicago Reader	"[It] achieves a nice balance between caricature and nuanced characterization and even manages not to be cloying"	POS
United States	Stephen Holden The New York Times	"A nearly flavorless mixture of air and sugar (...) [It] is almost impossible to swallow without risk of choking."	NEG
United States	Scott Tobias AV Club	"There's hardly a character, plot twist, or musical theme in the whole enterprise that isn't primed to go straight for the tear ducts"	NEU
United States	The New Yorker	"A magical child movie in which the child is magical, yes, but the movie is not."	NEU

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