THE BUMBLEBEE FLIES ANYWAY

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: profanity, abuse of deity, thematic elements

Rated:

All he can remember are strange, almost unnatural streets.... and a squealing of brakes. Then darkness... blinding darkness. This is the mind of Barney Snow (Elijah Wood), a young amnesia patient admitted to the special care ward. By allowing himself to be subjected to a magnitude of new tests and procedures, coupled with medication, Barney hopes to rediscover his past. The single patient in the ward who is not slowly dying, he is envied by many... hated by a few... and adored by the youngest patients. 'Don't get attached, Barney,' his physician, Dr. Harriman, pleads with him. But despite his best intentions, he is continuously drawn to the children of the ward... the wheelchair bound Billy (George Gore), the mentally-challenged child on the lower floor... and strangely enough, to the cancer-prone Mazzo just down the hall. The tough-talking, viper-tongued teenager has survived car crashes, all-night parties, and his parents' break up... but the one thing he cannot elude is death that is slowly creeping like a coming storm upon him.

The two create instant friction and purposely avoid one another... until one afternoon when Barney is summed to Mazzo's room for a trade. The suffering teen will allow Billy to use his phone for one hour each afternoon for two weeks, in return for Barney's presence that afternoon with an unexpected visitor.... Mazzo's twin sister Cassie (Rachael Leigh Cook), fresh from a convent abroad. Barney reluctantly agrees and finds Cassie a fresh, cheering face against the sour expression of her brother. Sensing that the girl is hurting, he seeks her out later and the two slowly begin to explore a friendship as Barney struggles to reconnect the shattered pieces of his past. But the truth is more than he anticipated, and could threaten his future forever. 

My sole purpose for renting this film was the playoff between two extremely talented young actors... Rachael Leigh Cook and Elijah Wood. What I found was a carefully wrapped package with truly touching performances that more than once reduced me to tears. Elijah's talents lie far beyond hobbit years and he portrays a confused but compassionate young adult with surprising maturity that is equaled in Rachael's careful portrayal of an equally concerned if slightly more grounded Cassie. Although the film borderlines on the bizarre with a few questionable elements of science, it does contain a good moral message. The last thought in closing is, if you had to lose your past to keep your future, would you? Would you sacrifice all your precious memories -- all those touching moments of happiness -- to erase the slate and begin again?

Perhaps the most touching section of the film comes when Barney pleads with Cassie, If I ever forget us, Cassie... if I ever forget this... promise me that you'll tell me our story. It's a bittersweet ending and a touching film. Thus said, The Bumblebee Flies Anyway is not for everyone. It has a scene that mounts toward suicide on the part of two hospital patients; the tension and fear that they will give in is far too dramatic for younger audiences. (Hence the PG13 rating, which is never pushed in any other proximity.) There is also an unfortunate amount of language, most disconcerting due to the fact that it comes from the mouths of infants... patients in the hospital, and namely Billy, an eleven-year-old child. Jesus' name is misused at least twice, present with other profanities.

Hypnotism is mentioned in a past reference by the doctors as a means to heal a patient, but not shown. Cassie confesses to some inner unexplainable link with her brother that inflicts pain upon her person whenever he is injured... a hint toward the thought that twins can be psychologically connected. Barney often has flashbacks to his past... believing that he was behind the seat of a red convertible that killed someone. These dramatic elements play behind a film that will draw a few smiles and many tears. Science proves that due to wing span verses body weight, a bumblebee should not be able to take wing and fly. But The Bumblebee Flies Anyway.