a review of

it took me a chunk of the movie to get into it. i didn't like kevin at first. but i enjoyed it more the weirder it got and loved all the set design and costumes and now i'd probably say i like this movie. the bandits were fantastic. in the director's commentary he says that reaction was divided between boys and girls at the end where boys loved it and girls wondered who would take care of Kevin after his parents blew up. Gilliam says the boys know that boys can take care of themselves. Now i wouldn't single Gilliam out for being unable to relate or be interested in writing about or for girls (pretty much the norm) but it reminded me of how I felt about Parnassus and the representation of the flat girl who is like a fantasy version of a girl. he doesn't imagine himself in her shoes, and here he considers the way the boys relate to Kevin to be the right way. i don't expect everything i watch to be for me but it's interesting how he sounds satisfied when he says that in the comentary, as clearly they marketed it as a children's movie and screen tested it with boys and girls, and not just boys.