Craniodiaphyseal dysplasia

Life can be hard for those who don't fit into some sort of mainstream category. From Holden Caulfield to Babe the pig, walking anomalies in physical, mental or emotional form tend not to get invited to the prom -- if you know what I mean.

Take "A Beautiful Mind" (2001, VHS/DVD) for example (not the real story, but the Ron Howard movie version of it). In emotional terms, John Nash is as different from his fellow colleagues, not to mention his students, as, say, John Merrick is to virtually anyone else physically.

Merrick, you'll recall, was the real person whose story David Lynch told in "The Elephant Man" (1980, VHS/DVD). As Merrick, John Hurt -- under several pounds of makeup -- was superb in showing that even a disfiguring disease such as multiple neurofibromatosis doesn't mean that a real, live person isn't living inside.

Nash and Merrick were based on real people. Hal Larson is pure fiction. Yet the issues raised by the movie about him, "Shallow Hal" (available for home viewing this week; see capsule review below), are again tied to the pain of being different.

And Hal is hardly the only one. Take the following characters:

* "Mask" (1985, VHS/DVD): In the trailers for this Peter Bogdanovich film, the teenage protagonist, Rocky Dennis (Eric Stoltz), is not seen. And there's a reason: Bogdanovich wanted Rocky's appearance, a dramatic facial distortion caused by the disease craniodiaphyseal dysplasia, to be as shocking as possible.

* "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" (1993, VHS/DVD): Johnny Depp plays the title character, and Leonardo DiCaprio gives the best performance, but the film's plot (by Peter Hedges based on his novel) revolves around Momma Grape, a woman who is so overweight that she can't even move from the couch.

* "Edward Scissorhands" (1990, VHS/DVD): Depp again, here in the role that broke him out of his "21 Jump Street" television persona. Tim Burton ("Pee-wee's Big Adventure," "Batman") continued his study of characters who, for some reason, don't fit into the mainstream. The problem: Edward literally has scissors for hands.

* "Benny & Joon" (1993, VHS/DVD): Joon (Mary Stuart Masterson), a young woman whose mental illness leads her to set fires, is romanced by a guy named Sam (Depp, yet again). Sam has his own problems; he acts as if he's the second coming of Charlie Chaplin. When they fall in love, real-life problems threaten to intrude. Special note: "Benny & Joon" was filmed in Spokane.

* "Cyrano de Bergerac" (1990, VHS only): Gerard Depardieu is the latest actor to play this big-nosed cavalier, a list that includes everyone from Jose Ferrer (who won an Oscar for Michael Gordon's 1950 version of the Edmond Rostand play, available on VHS and DVD) to Steve Martin ("Roxanne," 1987, VHS/DVD). But no one is better than Depardieu as a man with a poet's soul, a warrior's temperament and a nose the size and shape of a banana.

"Frankenstein" (1930, VHS/DVD): Lurking somewhere between Edward Scissorhands and John Merrick, Henry Frankenstein's monster (poignantly played by Boris Karloff) is afraid of fire, lonely to the point of psychosis and open to friendship to those not put off by his hideous appearance.

In all these cases, the problem is not with the characters as much as it is with a society not programmed to accept anyone with vastly different attitudes or physical form.

Some of the movies, "Benny & Joon" in particular, settle for the easy answer (love will solve all your problems). Others, though, show that everyone wants pretty much the same thing out of life. Rocky Dennis from "Mask" wants a girlfriend. Edward Scissorhands simply wants to fit in. Cyrano de Bergerac wants to believe that love makes life a noble venture.

All of them have this in common: They understand completely Frankenstein's monster when he utters his most memorable and heartbreaking plea: "Friend!"

The week's major release on home video:

Shallow Hal

***

Hal (Jack Black) was messed up by his father. His particular neurosis is that he consistently tries to date beautiful women, who just as consistently reject him. Until one day, caught in an elevator with self-help guru Tony Robbins, he is programmed to see only the inner beauty in everyone.

That's how he sees Rosemary (Gwyneth Paltrow), who to Hal looks like -- well, Gwyneth Paltrow, though to the rest of the world Rosemary looks like three Gwyneths packed into one. No matter, Hal falls in love. But what happens when his vision clears?

As one astute critic pointed out, "Shallow Hal" isn't about how hard life is when you don't fit into a "normal" physical category, it's about how hard it is to be the boyfriend of someone who is the perpetual butt of jokes. That bit of self-absorption aside, the movie works because it makes Hal and his friend Mauricio (Jason Alexander) the butt of jokes, too. (Alexander does mostly a variation on his "Seinfeld" character George.)

It also works because of Black, who is such an oddity: an on-the- edge actor who can still play-act the sensitive guy. Finally, don't forget Paltrow, who has the uncanny ability to be beautiful and yet convince us that she's not. (VHS, DVD) Rated PG-13 (language and sexual content).

Copyright 2002 Cowles Publishing Company
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