Pumpkin (film)

Pumpkin is a 2002 romantic dark comedy film starring Christina Ricci. It is a story of forbidden love between a developmentally-handicapped young man and a sorority girl. The film was directed by Anthony Abrams and Adam Larson Broder and written by Broder.

Plot

Carolyn McDuffy (Christina Ricci), in an effort to help her sorority sisters win a coveted award that has eluded them in the past years, joins them in training some handicapped young adults for the Challenged Games (a fictional version of the Special Olympics). Carolyn is linked with Jesse "Pumpkin" Romanoff (Hank Harris) and is horrified, mostly because she has never been in such an environment. Pumpkin is kind towards her and soon she finds herself falling in love with him because he is genuine, unlike her sorority sisters, as led by Julie Thurber (Marisa Coughlan), and her boyfriend, Kent Woodlands (Sam Ball).

Carolyn experiences backlash and disdain about the relationship from her friends and family, including Pumpkin's own mother, Judy (Brenda Blethyn), despite the fact that Carolyn's love has inspired Pumpkin to get out of his wheelchair and become the best athlete on the team. Judy later walks into her son's room and discovers that Carolyn and Pumpkin have been sexually involved. Pumpkin's mother accuses her of raping her son, claiming Carolyn "has no idea what she has done" to Pumpkin. Pumpkin's mother calls Carolyn's school, causing Carolyn to be kicked out of both her sorority and her school. Carolyn makes a suicide attempt by taking most of the pills and solutions from her medicine cabinet, but no real damage is done as Carolyn then throws up everything she took.