The Planet of Junior Brown (1997)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Clément Virgo

Writers:

Cameron Bailey (writer)
Virginia Hamilton (novel)

Tagline:

Passion Moves Mountains

Plot:

This is the story of an extremely obese, rather immature, yet very bright and talented young man, and of his world and the people in it...

Plot Keywords:

Chopin | Christmas | Piano Playing | Based On Novel

Awards:

5 wins & 9 nominations

Cast

Lynn Whitfield	...	Mrs. Brown
Martin Villafana	...	Junior Brown
Rainbow Francks	...	Buddy Clark (as Rainbow Sun Francks)
Clark Johnson	...	Mr. Pool
Sarah Polley	...	Butter
Richard Chevolleau	...	Duckie
Margot Kidder	...	Miss Peebs
Nicole Hardy	...	Lesley
Warren Benns	...	Spanish
Tina Su	...	Sandra Tanaka
Christopher Kennedy	...	Derrick
Dennis Akayama	...	Mr. Tanaka (as Denis Akiyama)
Dan Lett	...	Mr. Roundtree
Roy T. Anderson	...	Taxi driver
John Vasilantonakis	...	Peel's Neighbor

Also Known As:

Junior's Groove (USA) (video title)

MPAA:

Rated R for some sex-related dialogue and brief violence.

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Canada:14A (Ontario) | Singapore:PG | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Company:

Film Works, The

Movie Connections:

References Twins (1988/I)

Will an overweight teen piano prodigy ever reach his full potential?

Flipping through the cable channels, I came across the rotund visage of one Martin Villafana, dancing around a room in a stilted pirouette and not unlike rubbernecking at a traffic accident, I was compelled to watch. I later watched the film, The Planet of Junior Brown, in its entirety and I wished the rest of the film weren't so beholden in tone and mood to that initial scene I was exposed to. While I admittedly still look forward to read the novel on which this film is based, I have many problems with the piece of celluloid I have before me. Instead of grounding its many dreamlike moments with instances which harken to reality, we're given a film which feels like something remembered, forgotten, or indexed from someone's fevered yet bittersweet memories. Although I empathize with Junior's plight since I am a person with a weight problem, I really think some of the choices the director and scenarist made about this piano virtuoso ultimately betrayed what they were going for. What's left is a promising yet still empty afterschool special.