R-Rated Controversial Comedy With Beloved Star You Can’t Make Today, Stream Without Netflix
When today’s audiences look back at previous film entries through a set of modern lenses, there are certain scenes that have not held up well. In certain cases, there are entire movie concepts that would never pass the muster of a generation more concerned with equity, inclusion, and political correctness than they are with cheap laughs. One particular film from the early 2000s, Pumpkin, pushed the limits of good taste when it was being produced and is certainly not a movie that a studio would tether its reputation to in 2024.
No Way Could This Be Made Today
Pumpkin is a movie about a college senior who is beginning her final year at a prestigious university in southern California. Carolyn McDuffy (Christina Ricci) and her equally vapid sorority sisters are competing against rival groups for a campus service award. Carolyn’s sorority commits to helping train developmentally disabled adults for a competition called the Challenged Games, which pairs the young woman with a boy named Jesse Romanoff (Hank Harris).
Coming Out Of Her Shell
Nicknamed “Pumpkin,” the source of Carolyn’s new project at first repulses and shocks her. Having been sheltered from the real world her entire life, Carolyn has never been around anyone, unlike her and her social circle. However, the movie shows her developing a strong bond with Pumpkin as the two work together to train.
Still A Better Love Story Than Twilight
Unlike Carolyn’s sorority sisters and her jerky boyfriend, Kent Woodlands (Sam Ball), Pumpkin is a kind and thoughtful person. Carolyn finds herself becoming emotionally attracted to the challenged man, and the two of them begin a controversial relationship. After Pumpkin becomes inspired to become the best athlete on his team at the Challenged Games, he and Carolyn’s relationship gets taken to the next step, and they become intimate.
The Controversial Plot Points Keep Coming
This doesn’t fly well with Pumpkin’s mother, Judy (Brenda Blethyn), who accuses Carolyn of assaulting her son. Judy raises Hell with the university, and Carolyn finds herself expelled from the institution and shunned by her sorority sisters. But after a botched suicide attempt, the pity that’s shown to her leads her back into the good graces of both the school and her Greek organization.
The Pumpkin movie sees Carolyn’s boyfriend attacking the title character at a university dance but ultimately beaten and rendered unconscious. A series of tragic events unfold as Carolyn makes a dramatic exit from Pumpkin’s life just before he is set to compete in the Challenged Games.
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REVIEW SCORE
Pumpkin is a low-brow attempt at dark satire but falls short of the mark in many places. The movie succeeds in creating a stuffy, snobby atmosphere and filling the storyline with some of the shallowest characters imaginable, but only does so by exhausting old college film tropes that have been done to death. The critics of its time seemed to admire the premise of the production but felt that the tongue-in-cheek plot devices were too zany and worked to totally offset the satirical message the film was trying to convey.
Ricci does well in her role as Carolyn, playing the naive and one-dimensional college girl whose eyes are opened by her new relationship. Pumpkin‘s one saving grace is the Addams Family actress’s performance, and the movie remains one of her most underrated roles.
You can stream Pumpkin for free with Tubi.
