The Mighty

Peter Chelsom directed this family film in the tradition of My Left Foot (1989). Charles Leavitt scripted this adaptation of the young-adult novel Freak the Mighty (Blue Sky/Scholastic, 1993) by 45-year-old Rodman Philbrick. Big and burly eighth-grader Max Kane is learning disabled, but after he meets the brilliant and brainy Kevin (Kieran Culkin), crippled by a birth defect, the two realize they can become an unbeatable team. Kevin, who wears leg braces and uses crutches, suffers from Morquio's Syndrome, which causes physical growth to stop after the age of six. Max is portrayed by 19-year-old Emerson College filmmaking student Elden Hanson, while Sharon Stone plays Kevin's mother.