Henry and Verlin (1994)

Wow...What an oddity

Poor video quality, odd story, odd actors. There is a good story in here somewhere begging to get out. I think someone should find it and rescue it. There is discussion of nudity in this film. If it's there, it's briefer than brief and its certainly not the focus of this film or its been edited out for this release. The mentally challenged man and the autistic boy are just friends...the adults around them though seem to be the real idiots. September 22, 2007

If Margot Kidder is in it, it has to be...well, you know.

Henry is a grown man who is mentally retarded. Verlin is a little boy who never speaks. Together, they are supposed to warm your hearts as you watch them frolic about as loving soulmates.

Henry has a nasty habit of kidnapping Verlin and carrying him around on his shoulders. He's not very responsible and also has the habit of inadvertently injuring Verlin. He knocks the kid to the ground and slams his head against things. It's all quite adorable. Henry is kind enough to show Verlin the joys of smoking (and strangely smoking is heavily promoted in this film). The boy doesn't enjoy his first cigarette very much and throws it into a pile of hay. This starts a fire and Henry tries to put it out by urinating on it. The fire continues to rage so he has an ingenious idea...he unzips Verlin's pants so he can urinate on the fire too. Ah yes, that's doubly adorable.

Henry introduces Verlin to his friend, the prostitute with the heart of gold. She would be a total movie cliche except that she is given a wooden leg. Of course, it breaks off to provide the viewer with a supposedly side-splitting moment of laughter. Soon enough, Henry and Verlin are sharing a bed together in their undies. A couple of women burst in on them and have the nerve to get upset! Ultimately, the adorable tyke and his dim-witted "special friend" fight the system in the hopes of running off together happily ever after.

I'm not sure who is supposed to be the target audience of this film. The pace of the movie is very slow and the subject matter has limited appeal. I truly thought when I purchased the DVD that it would be a touching story about people who are considered different from others and how they are often ignored or ridiculed by supposedly "normal" people. Instead, I got an uneasy story about a man and a boy's obesession with each other.

A final note: the DVD is produced by Platinum Disc Corporation, and like many of their products, both the audio and video quality leave a lot to be desired. November 23, 2004

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