Awfully Good: Bubble Boy

September 25th 2019, 12:00pm

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME hits home video next week and I'm not sure why, but seeing Jake Gyllenhaal wear a glass bubble on his head made me want to watch another movie…

Bubble Boy (2001)

Director: Blair Hayes
Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Marley Shelton, Swoosie Kurtz

A boy with no immune system dons a protective bubble and sets off on a cross-country road trip to stop the woman he loves from getting married.

Much like DUDE, WHERE'S MY CAR? (which we also recently reviewed), BUBBLE BOY is a comedy from the early 2000s that is both undeniably dumb AND surprisingly good. Well, good may be a strong word, but it's definitely a movie that has it's charms, enough to give it some staying power nearly two decades later.

That's the natural reaction anytime anyone gets a call from Marvel about joining the MCU.

The idea is a simple one, inspired by a real-life story: Jimmy was born without any immunities and lives inside a sterilized plastic bubble in his house. He has a sheltered life with his domineering, ultra-religious mother until he's a teenager, when he befriends and falls in love with the girl next door (Marley Shelton). When she one day announces she's eloping to marry her scumbag boyfriend, Jimmy decides it's time to suit up and finally set out in to the real world to put a stop to the wedding. While that premise has typically been mined for more dramatic fare (most memorably a John Travolta TV movie), it also works as a silly, but good-natured comedy.

What helps is that BUBBLE BOY recognizes it's strengths and leans in to the weird characters and memorable situations Jimmy runs into along the way, from a Fabio-led doomsday cult who think's he's the messiah to a bikini mud wrestling competition that clearly only exists because of the film's teen male audience. Some of the character portrayals and stereotypes may be a little tasteless by today's standards, but the film's ultimate message of tolerance, one where the religious antagonist finds herself in a polyamorous biker relationship by the end, helps you look past that.

Still more believable than the dinosaur stampede in 2005's KING KONG.

I would say there’s really no reason this movie should work as well as it does, but we all know that reason is 100% Jake Gyllenhaal. The actor was still a few years from Oscar nominations and big budget Roland Emmerich movies when this came out (and even a few months from the release of DONNIE DARKO), but he still gives a legitimately great performance as the title character. Gyllenhaal plays Jimmy's unwavering innocence so well, a boy so naïve he finds joy in literal dog shit, that it's both believable and somehow not super annoying. He also completely commits to every dumb line and idea the script throws at him, from being scared of his own erection and beating it down with a baseball bat, to doing the entire emotional climax of the movie in children's underwear.

Oh, and let’s not forget to give him credit for being willing to sport that ridiculously terrible haircut for the entire movie.

Critics and audiences agreed that the franchise had run out of steam by the fifth movie, MACHETE AT THE WEDDING.

Gyllenhaal may be the main draw, but the movie boasts a lot of recognizable faces in small but memorable parts to round things out. Danny Trejo gets to play a nice guy for once as the leader of a surprisingly sweet motorcycle gang. (He's also the only sensible person in the movie who asks how Jimmy goes to the bathroom in the bubble.) Verne Troyer leads a troupe of circus freaks as a medical professional named Dr. Phreak and makes a Mini-Me joke within his first 30 seconds on screen. Zack Galifianakis pretty much plays himself as a dickish bus station attendant. Swoozie Kurtz and Gyllenhaal's future ZODIAC co-star John Carroll Lynch play Jimmy's parents and have a fun dynamic. And you may also spot cameos by everyone from ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK's Pablo Schreiber to Beetlejuice from the Howard Stern Show to Blue from OLD SCHOOL, who plays twins Pippy and Pappy.

I never knew how badly I wanted to see a Blue-centric OLD SCHOOL spinoff prequel until this very moment.

At the end of the day, BUBBLE BOY is short and sweet and endlessly quotable (even if yelling out "500 DOLLA!!" is a little problematic now), with a great soundtrack and a fun performance by the future Mysterio. If you have fond memories of it, it's still worth revisiting.

From this to Oscar nominee in less than four years!