TheRetroCritic

Oh dear... This is what happens when you go snooping around a popular actor's filmography. Benny & Joon , a Johnny Depp-starring weirdo comedy in which he plays a Charlie Chaplin wannabe who, for whatever reason, starts baby-sitting some moody guy's mentally challenged (or, in movie talk: artistic, quirky and misunderstood) sister, sounded like fun. I mean, Johnny Depp wouldn't sign up to a rom-com unless there was something a bit more to it. Right? As it turns out, the guy clearly just wanted an excuse to be Chaplin/Buster Keaton for a day and show off his... slapstick magic... 'skills'? The problem? Benny & Joon isn't funny. Furthermore, Depp isn't funny in it. And by god he tries... I mean, ok, parts of the movie get close to being charming (near the very end, mostly) but most of the time you're just waiting for Benny to punch Sam's (Depp) face in. This is a manipulative little film not so much concerned with developing its