Over-the-top comedy about a bubble boy on a road trip
A naïve teenager (Jake Gyllenhaal) has to stay separated from people due to having no immune system. When the woman he loves (Marley Shelton) goes to Niagara Falls to marry her bad boy beau, he sets out to stop the wedding clothed in a protective suit resembling a plastic bubble. Several colorful characters are encountered along the way.
“Bubble Boy” (2001) is not a serious drama on the topic, like Travolta’s “The Boy in the Plastic Bubble” from 25 years earlier (which was inspired by two real-life cases). No, this is a comedic account in the manner of that 1992 Seinfeld episode mixed with the zany road trip milieu of “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.” The protagonist is reminiscent of Brendan Fraser in “Blast from the Past” meshed with Ace Ventura.
It's laugh-out-loud funny throughout because it constantly goes over-the-edge in executing the jokes. The sacred cow on the highway is a good example. It takes stabs at several types of people, but isn’t offensive because of its equal opportunity approach. Some examples include, religious legalists, youthful libertines, bikers, sideshow freaks, pop cultists, Hindus and Asians. Wait till you find out who the guru of the cultists is.
Winsome blonde Marley Shelton is a highlight in the female department, as is Ever Carradine as her beau’s sister, not to mention Stacy Keibler in a small role as a mud wrestler.
It runs 1 hour, 24 minutes, and was shot in areas north of Los Angeles, including Palmdale, Santa Clarita, Piru, Santa Paula and La Verne, as well as Las Vegas and Niagara Falls.
GRADE: B+/A-
2025-05-14
