| Jake Gyllenhall, most known for his starring roles in Donnie Darko and The Day After Tomorrow, takes a break from visions of giant bunnies and the end of the world to play a boy in a bubble suit. Jimmy Livingston was born without immunities and thanks to his religious over-protective mother, lives inside a bubble for fear of being exposed to the world's germs. Jimmy is perfectly content in his isolation until he falls in love with the girl next door and embarks on an insane journey to proclaim his love.
You know instantly what is going to happen with this film. There are no surprises whatsoever, it's simply the journey that counts. The film is quite short and moves quickly, each scene snappily shot to add more to the rolling ball of chaos. And chaos it is indeed with a cast of strange and often hilarious characters getting involved in Jimmy's journey to Niagra Falls. The basis of the film is predictable, you have the setting the scene at the beginning, the journey itself, followed by things going wrong before a happy ending and the film sticks to this formula while getting in some giggles along the way. I would not recommend this film if you are looking for something intellectually challenging, a lot of it is slapstick. I would also not recommend it if you are looking for Road Trip, the rare crude jokes the film has are watered down severely. Overall, the film is very heartwarming and a good laugh if you allow yourself to be amused. A teen movie with much more sugar and innocence than has been seen recently while still being quite funny is a pleasure to watch.
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