BUBBLE BOY
US, 2001, 88 minutes, Colour.
Jake Gyllenhaal, Swoosie Kurtz, John Carroll Lynch, Marley Shelton, Verne Troyer.
Directed by Blair Hayes.
Bubble Boy is a bizarre little film, comedy, parody, often absurd.
Jake Gyllenhaal in an early role is Jimmy, the boy of the title. His voice-over narrates how he was born without immunity, is in danger of infection and so is placed in a hermetically sealed bubble. His devoted mother, Swoosie Kurtz, overwhelmingly smothering, and putting down her husband, John Carroll Lynch, supervises his growing up. We see this in phases until he is an adolescent, happy in life, playing the guitar, looking out the window and seeing the attractive young neighbour, Chloe (Marley Shelton) and experiences sexual arousal – which his mother says to control by singing the Star Spangled Banner!
The attraction towards Chloe grows but she has a boyfriend who proposes to her and an intended wedding at Niagara Falls.
Jimmy decides to leave home, goes out on his bubble, experiences a whole range of eccentric, if not odd, Americans along the road including a young Zach Galifiniakis as a rather monotone bus ticket seller, a group of over-enthusiastic members of a sect in their bus, singing and dancing, with their leader (Fabio) telling them that a saviour will appear in a bubble. There is Danny Trejo as bikie, a number of bikie friends, a whole range of freaks from a circus on the train with their leader Phreak (Austin Powers’ Mini -me, Verne Troyer), a Hindu seller of ice creams and curry, the pleasant young woman who gives him a free drink but who has a gun pulled on the owner of the diner, and an old, very old man and his twin who give Jimmy a ride in a car and then in a plane. In the meantime, his mother and father in pursuit, picking up Phreak and treating him well until he gives the information and he is ejected from the car.
Jimmy arrives in time, a bit like the culmination of The Graduate, steps out of his bubble and finds that his mother has placed him there for protection and he can survive outside the bubble. In the meantime, she is identified by the bikie as his former girlfriend, Wildfire, and he rides off on his bike with her and her husband!
1. Comedy, parody? The touches of the absurd?
2. Jimmy and his situation, the voice-over, the story of his being born, taken home, the devotion of his mother, the bubble, infections and immunity, his life, growing up, the various stages, his mother and her stories, the slight presence of his father, changing age, adolescence, the music, playing the guitar, the prospects for his life? His contentment within the bubble? Communications, happy, the funnel for things to come in, his gloves and handling the outside?
3. Home setting, the contrast with being on the road, in the desert, the bus station, Las Vegas, for gambling, on the road, the truck, the bus, the bikies, the cars, the diner and his getting a free drink, the family fights, the plane ride, Niagara Falls? The musical score and the songs?
4. Jimmy, in the bubble, ingenuous, the attraction to Chloe, watching out the window, the effect, sexual arousal and his mother urging to sing the Star Spangled Banner, Chloe coming to visit, wanting to get in, Jimmy stopping her? The visit from the boyfriend, his cigarette? The news of the wedding, Chloe’s gift and his giving it back, Jimmy sulking? The decision and his motivation?
5. Getting out, and the bubble, awkward, on the street? Going to buy the bus ticket, the impassive man selling? Knocked down by the bus, the sect representatives, welcoming Jimmy, song and dance, going to their conference, the leader of the sect, his diagram with the saviour coming in the bubble, their returning onto the road, to find him? Not wanting to go to Hell for not finding the bubble boy? The biker, Jimmy offering the patches, getting the ride? The other bikies? The Hindu, ice cream and curry, the kids following? On the train, encountering Phreak, the range of freaks, their befriending him, Phreak off the train? His being stranded? His parents finding him? In the diner, the girl holding up the owner and letting him have the free drink? His father, deciding to let him go? The old man, the car, the alternate old man and the feud between the two brothers, the woman in between? The plane ride? Niagara Falls? The zany effect, American oddities?
6. Jimmy’s mother, ultra devotion, smothering him, fanatical? The father, subject to his wife? Picking up Phreak, treating him like her child, the information and ejecting him?
7. Niagara Falls, the wedding, the ceremony, Jimmy arriving, loving Chloe, getting out of the bubble, his mother telling the truth, his father’s urging? His love for Chloe?
8. The bikie, his talking about his girlfriend standing him up, Wildfire? Finding Jimmy’s mother, her being Wildfire? Going off on the bike, with the bikie and with her husband?
9. The blend of the amusing, the silly – and its overall effect?
