57
Metascore
21 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 75Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertBenny and Joon is a film that approaches its subjects so gingerly it almost seems afraid to touch them. The story wants to be about love, but is also about madness, and somehow it weaves the two together with a charm that would probably not be quite so easy in real life.
- 75Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanBenny & Joon turns out to be a whimsical (and not very well paced) heart tugger in which two nice couples spend 98 ever-so-slightly flaky minutes figuring out that they’re perfect for each other.
- 70The New York TimesJanet MaslinThe New York TimesJanet MaslinBenny and Joon is a dangerously fanciful story of cute eccentrics, characters whose quirks are the very essence of their appeal. Some of us experience a form of red alert at the very notion of adorable oddballs on screen, but Benny and Joon turns out to be remarkably benign in that regard.
- 60Los Angeles TimesPeter RainerLos Angeles TimesPeter RainerThis sentimental stew is not without its flavors, and the cast tries hard to be winsome and adorably distraught.
- 60Time Out LondonTime Out LondonAnother one flies over the cuckoo's nest in this soft-hearted romantic three-hander. It's acted out in the secondary emotional register of the glass menagerie: whimsical, delicate, idiosyncratic, barmy.
- 50TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineA gentle comedy about two misfits--a schizophrenic girl and a boy whom earlier generations would have called an odd duck--who find love, Benny & Joon means well but overdoses on whimsy.
- 50Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAustin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenNaïf meets waif in this touching yet unrealistic tale of love amongst society's write-offs. Between Masterson's schizophrenic Joon Pearl and Depp's oddball Sam, it's difficult to tell which one's the naïf and which is the waif.
- 50Washington PostRita KempleyWashington PostRita KempleyChechik has crafted Benny & Joon not as a seamless whole but as a tumble of scenes. Unfortunately, too many of them are inspired by Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd or Buster Keaton, and they seem to spill from the screen like Bozos from a kiddie car.
- 38Rolling StonePeter TraversRolling StonePeter TraversWhatever qualms you might have about romanticizing mental illness, the misguided Benny and Joon thinks it's just darling.