The beginning of the movie portrays Pumpkin as incapable and dependent, under the control of an overprotective mother due to his inability to perform daily tasks. We first see him at the challenged games practice field where he meets his mentor, Carolyn. He is in a wheelchair and can barely stand up straight without support. Pumpkin is portrayed as freakish, even scary, in this scene; he charges at Carolyn with his wheelchair, while Carolyn stands immobilized by panic. His puzzled stare, loss of words, frightening exterior, and fumbling throws of the discus align him with popular stereotypes that mark the intellectually disabled as cold-hearted and unaffectionate, in addition to being verbally and physically challenged.

This characterization is temporarily disrupted when Pumpkin falls in love with Carolyn and becomes determined to perform better and improve his endurance.

This process of overcoming stereotype accelerates during a visit to the beach with Carolyn and a couple of her friends. The scene begins with Pumpkin being picked up and introduced to his blind date, a friend of Carolyn’s. Pumpkin’s date becomes upset when she recognizes his disabled status, and the scene ends with a tearful friend being led back to the car and driven home, leaving Pumpkin alone on the beach in his wheelchair. Carolyn finally remembers, hours later, that she has forgotten Pumpkin at the beach, and rushes back to get him and apologize. At the end of this sequence, Pumpkin and Carolyn are on the beach by themselves having a conversation. This scene establishes an intimacy and understanding between the two, pained characters. Carolyn confides in Pumpkin and tells him this is the first time she has felt pain. She identifies pain as a feeling similar to a broken mirror and Pumpkin agrees with her, demonstrating his own awareness and experience of pain. The director’s choice to place Carolyn below wheelchair here makes him the authority figure in the scene, suggesting that handicapped people are capable of the same feelings as people of normal intellect. It also demonstrates that handicapped people are fully able to be placed in normal social situations. This scene on the beach leads Carolyn to fall in love with Pumpkin, and vice versa. Pumpkin becomes motivated to perform better in the discus throw and improve his strength with this newfound purpose in life. The audience slowly views this transformation as Pumpkin begins to spend all of his effort and determination in training, which helps break through the stereotypes. Pumpkin begins by just practicing his throws in his backyard and lifting small amounts of weights, but he is eventually capable of throwing the discus further and lifting more weights as time progresses. Carolyn and Pumpkin’s relationship always to break down other societal rules and expectations.

At one point in the movie, Pumpkin’s mother catches the couple having sex in her house. She forbids Carolyn to ever come in the house again or see Pumpkin. Pumpkin is determined to see the woman he loves, however; he steals his mother’s car and begins driving away. This scene shows the audience that handicap people are capable of challenging authority and following their own conviction, even though Pumpkin wrecks the car before he gets out of the driveway. There is also a scene near the end of the movie in which Pumpkin fights Kent, a varsity athlete and Carolyn’s ex-boyfriend of Carolyn, at a sorority of the year dance. Pumpkin wins the fight, defending his love for Carolyn and demonstrating yet again that handicapped people have courage to stand up for their views, even in situation where they are at a disadvantage. These scenes help the audience follow Pumpkin’s transition from a cold, unaffectionate character in wheelchair to a character that is able to improve on his performance through determination and fight for his love.

Unfortunately, Pumpkin’s minimal improvements move beyond the plausible and into the ridiculous—the directors blow his progress out of proportion. Pumpkin’s transformation moves into high gear as he slowly goes from improving his skills to being able to walk and talk smoothly without any assistance. Pumpkin is barely capable of holding the discus or even talking to Carolyn at the beginning of the movie. By training in his backyard Pumpkin learns to throw a discus a few feet away and then, suddenly, is shown throwing it several yards like a world class athlete. He can also make it around the monkey bars several times without breaking a sweat. Pumpkin is also incapable of standing up for more then a few seconds at the beginning of the movie. His training helps him stand and walk for longer periods of time, but by the end of the movie he is suddenly able to run and fight. Pumpkin also goes from barely being able to say Carolyn’s name to being able to talk rapidly and with a much wider vocabulary. These improvements in his physical performance are drastic, a mockery of Pumpkin’s determination as the audience slowly realizes how unrealistic his progress has become. While it the audience might have believed Pumpkin could improve his abilities through hard work, the film’s later hyperbole makes the audience doubt even the small improvements Pumpkin has made.

His relationship with Carolyn is also very sudden and fast-paced. One second the audience is watching the uncomfortable Carolyn try to avoid Pumpkin, and within a few days she has consummated her love for him. Their relationship as friends is believable, but only till the point where Carolyn begins to have intimate feelings for Pumpkin. After that scene, the movie seems to be making a mockery of social norms as Carolyn, a good-looking college student in a sorority, falls in love with Pumpkin, a handicapped individual with almost no ambition in life. Carolyn breaks up with her handsome, athletic fraternity boyfriend to pursue Pumpkin, an unlikely decision which mocks the possibility of Carolyn and Pumpkin’s love even more.

Pumpkin is a comedy wrapped in a love story that becomes, ultimately, a mockery of not only social norms but the determination of handicapped people. The movie is very informative and inspiring until the themes are blown out of proportion. Such a film would have proven far more beneficial to the disabled community if it had remained dramatic instead of comic, a directorial decision which could have kept the characters’ improvements and relationships within the realms of reality. This in turn would have helped the audience better understand the lives, difficulties, and capabilities of the handicapped population. Instead, the film’s mockery of Pumpkin’s progress undercuts the ideological achievements made by the movie’s first half.

By Kirtan Patel (UNC-CH)