MOVIEmeter
Top 5000
Up 320 this week

Benny & Joon (1993)

 -  Comedy | Drama | Romance  -  16 April 1993 (USA)
7.0
Your rating:
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -/10 X  
Ratings: 7.0/10 from 33,449 users  
Reviews: 150 user | 31 critic

A mentally ill young woman finds her love in an eccentric man who models himself after Buster Keaton.

Writers:

(story), (story), 1 more credit »
0Check in
0Share...

User Lists

Related lists from IMDb users

a list of 2309 titles created 5 months ago
 
a list of 974 titles created 10 Mar 2012
 
a list of 189 titles created 7 months ago
 
a list of 10000 titles created 3 months ago
 
a list of 545 titles created 15 Sep 2011
 

Connect with IMDb


Share this Rating

Title: Benny & Joon (1993)

Benny & Joon (1993) on IMDb 7/10

Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.

Take The Quiz!

Test your knowledge of Benny & Joon.
Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 3 nominations. See more awards »

Videos

Photos

Learn more

People who liked this also liked... 

Comedy | Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.6/10 X  

A psychiatrist must cure a young patient that presents himself as Don Juan, the greatest lover in the world.

Director: Jeremy Leven
Stars: Marlon Brando, Johnny Depp, Faye Dunaway
The Terminal (2004)
Comedy | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.2/10 X  

An eastern immigrant finds himself stranded in JFK airport, and must take up temporary residence there.

Director: Steven Spielberg
Stars: Tom Hanks, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Stanley Tucci
Comedy | Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.7/10 X  

A single mother/waitress, a misanthropic author, and a gay artist form an unlikely friendship after the artist is in an accident.

Director: James L. Brooks
Stars: Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, Greg Kinnear
Comedy | Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.8/10 X  

A young New York socialite becomes interested in a young man who has moved into her apartment building.

Director: Blake Edwards
Stars: Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal
Comedy | Drama | Fantasy
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.5/10 X  

A former radio DJ, suicidally despondent because of a terrible mistake he made, finds redemption in helping a deranged homeless man who was an unwitting victim of that mistake.

Director: Terry Gilliam
Stars: Jeff Bridges, Adam Bryant, Paul Lombardi
Garden State (2004)
Comedy | Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.6/10 X  

A quietly troubled young man returns home for his mother's funeral after being estranged from his family for a decade.

Director: Zach Braff
Stars: Zach Braff, Ian Holm, Peter Sarsgaard
Comedy | Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.8/10 X  

An offbeat romantic comedy about a woman who doesn't believe true love exists, and the young man who falls for her.

Director: Marc Webb
Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zooey Deschanel, Geoffrey Arend
Comedy | Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.7/10 X  

In 1990, to protect his fragile mother from a fatal shock after a long coma, a young man must keep her from learning that her beloved nation of East Germany as she knew it has disappeared.

Director: Wolfgang Becker
Stars: Daniel BrĂ¼hl, Katrin SaĂŸ, Chulpan Khamatova
Comedy | Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.7/10 X  

A British woman is determined to improve herself while she looks for love in a year in which she keeps a personal diary.

Director: Sharon Maguire
Stars: Renée Zellweger, Gemma Jones, Colin Firth
Now and Then (1995)
Comedy | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.3/10 X  

Four 12-year-old girls grow up together during an eventful small-town summer in 1970.

Director: Lesli Linka Glatter
Stars: Christina Ricci, Rosie O'Donnell, Thora Birch
Reality Bites (1994)
Comedy | Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.4/10 X  

Generation X Graduates face life after college with a filmmaker looking for work and love in Houston.

Director: Ben Stiller
Stars: Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, Janeane Garofalo
Tootsie (1982)
Comedy | Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.4/10 X  

An unemployed actor with a reputation for being difficult disguises himself as a woman to get a role in a soap opera.

Director: Sydney Pollack
Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, Teri Garr
Edit

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
...
Sam
...
...
...
...
Eric
...
Dr. Garvey (as C.C.H. Pounder)
...
Thomas
...
Mike
...
Randy Burch
...
Claudia
...
Mrs. Smail
Don Hamilton ...
UPS Man
Waldo Larson ...
Waldo
Irvin Johnson ...
Orderly
Shane Nilsson ...
Orderly
Edit

Storyline

In a small town, an auto mechanic named Benny is devoted to taking care of his mentally ill sister, Joon, who can barely function alone in the real world despite being a talented artist. This relatively stable situation is shaken up when Benny is obliged in a poker game to welcome another player's relative, Sam, to his home for a few days. When Sam arrives, he quickly makes an impression with his quietly eccentric ways which emulate the antics of the great silent movie comedian, Buster Keaton. Without Benny's full knowledge, Sam and Joon find themselves drawn to each other to the fullest degree. However when Benny finds out, it creates a rift in the siblings as they struggle to accept their relationship is profoundly changing with the presence of this odd newcomer. Written by Kenneth Chisholm (kchishol@rogers.com)

Plot Summary | Add Synopsis

Plot Keywords:

poker | love | mechanic | sibling | bus | See more »

Taglines:

A romance on the brink of reality.

Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for theme, a scene of mild sensuality and one use of harsh language | See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

 »
Edit

Details

Official Sites:

Country:

Language:

Release Date:

16 April 1993 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

Benny i Joon  »

Box Office

Gross:

$23,202,734 (USA)
 »

Company Credits

Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

Color:

(Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1
See  »
Edit

Did You Know?

Trivia

In addition to the ironed grilled cheese sandwiches and the tennis racket mashed potatoes, there was a scene where Sam made crab in the dishwasher. It was cut for time. See more »

Goofs

When Sam and Joon are on the bus, in one shot Sam has his arm on his cane, but the next shot his arm is around Joon. See more »

Quotes

Joon: She was given to fits of semi-precious metaphors.
Benny: The woman is a housekeeper, Joon, not an English professor.
See more »

Connections

Referenced in Saturday Night Live: The Best of David Spade (2005) See more »

Soundtracks

"PINETOP'S BOOGIE WOOGIE"
Written and Performed by Pinetop Perkins (as Joe 'Pinetop' Perkins)
Courtesy of Antone's Records and Tapes
See more »

Frequently Asked Questions

See more (Spoiler Alert!) »

User Reviews

 
Original, Romantic, and Fun!
4 January 2004 | by (Illinois) – See all my reviews

I have fallen in love with this film. It is a classic love story between two lovable, quirky characters Sam and Joon. Benny and Joon has serious elements in its portrayal of Joon's (Masterson) sickness and how it affects her relationship with her brother, Benny (Quinn). This melancholy feeling is soon overshadowed by the magical aura that Sam (Depp) brings to these troubled siblings giving the movie an overall light-hearted and fun feeling.

The characters in Benny and Joon make the film truly original. Johnny Depp's portrayal of Sam is amazing. He hits the mark with his off-the-wall performance that brings exceptional charm to the story. Mary Stuart Masterson's portrayal of the mentally ill Joon is also spectacular. Depp and Masterson have undeniable chemistry in this movie. The quirkiness of their characters complement each other while Aidan Quinn's portrayal of Benny keeps the story down to earth with his sensibility that contrasts Sam and Joon's eccentricity. In short, this is a romance you won't want to miss.


16 of 18 people found this review helpful.  Was this review helpful to you?

Message Boards

Recent Posts
'My life's just real complicated right now...' elphaba_daae
I love Johnny he's awesome! Leticia2220
Celery and peanut butter Sylphadora
Ok the scene on the bus luvthemnbyz2010
Any guys like this movie? MoviezMuffin
The title... mistifers
Discuss Benny & Joon (1993) on the IMDb message boards »

Contribute to This Page

Create a character page for:
?