BENNY AND JOON

BENNY AND JOON (Directed by Jeremiah Chechik. Starring Johnny Depp, Mary Stuart Masterson, Aidan Quinn)

While it is encouraging to see an issue like care in the community being tackled with light hearted brio - or even being tackled at all - "Benny And Joon" has a fatally flawed perspective on mental illness.

Aidan Quinn plays Benny, a garage mechanic saddled with looking after his mentally disturbed sister, Joon (Mary Stuart Masterson). Johnny Depp, continuing a career line of eccentric outsiders, plays the only character with a reasonable name, Sam, a handsome but half-bright would-be-clown who mimics the slapstick behaviour of his hero, Buster Keaton. When romance blossoms between the mentally challenged, Benny over-protectively interferes.

There are scenes of engaging whimsy married to moments of dramatic conviction but the tone is largely soft hearted and the script soft headed. Depp does a star turn, but the film is rooted in the blue collar integrity of Quinn's customarily fine performance. Masterson, however, does not seem to know what to do with this chance of career revival, stretching her range from kooky to insane, which is not much of a stretch at all.

The problem with "Benny And Joon" is that despite its good intentions it appears to view schizophrenia as a mild eccentricity. This is mental illness as a lifestyle choice, where the cure lies not in psychotherapy but in the path of true love.

By the end we are certain that Sam and Joon will get it together to breed their own little batch of loonies. After watching Quinn, who underpins his role with the worn out edges of a perpetual career, a critical viewer may wonder what will have become of Sam's carefreeness in a few years time.

Ah, by that time the credits have rolled and the audience have walked out with a warm glow. I bet you never knew mental illness could be so much fun.