More sensitive than I expected but as a genre film it is not funny or interesting enough

Rating: Null/10 (18 December 2006)

Unable to fire a janitor, Steve Barker gives Stavi a job as gardener at his apartment complex. However when the man loses his fingers in an industrial accident Steve is faced with paying for the surgery. Coincidently Gary Barker is a gambler with large debts and no hope of getting himself out of trouble. Lacking any sort of moral scruples, Gary comes up with the idea of entering Steve into the Special Olympics and betting on him as a sure fire winner ahead of all the other "retards". A group of his fellow competitors spot him a mile off but when he explains what he is trying to do they agree to help him as long as he can beat cocky regular winner Jimmy.
OK, so I sat down to this film knowing that basically this is a comedy about a man who pretends to have a mental disability to cheat at the Special Olympics, features the word "tard" used loads in the first ten minutes and stars the man behind Jackass. So at no point was I expecting this to be sensitive or PC at all, but I figured it might provide some basic laughs and be worth a look. Surprisingly the film is not as insensitive as the opening ten or so minutes would suggest. This is not say that the film gets into the characters of the mentally challenged characters because it is not some deep film, but rather than it doesn't mock them for being what they are. What the film is is a sports genre comedy with basic characters  it just happens to be set in the world of Special Olympics.
However, reviewing it as a genre movie I must admit that it is only an average one at best. It isn't very funny and the plot just moves along with no real inner logic or desire to do anything clever or interesting. The plot is nonsense, with the dumbest people in the world not spotting Steve's ruse. The romance subplot is clunky and drags the film down somewhat. The "PC" issue is a little bit obvious as the film tries to walk the thin line between respectful and offensive but generally it doesn't let it be a big issue and simply lets it be. Knoxville is pretty poor as "Jeffy" because he can't really act that well. He does a good job though of preventing Jeffy being a terrible stereotype and, although he's not great, he walks a difficult line well; I'm not sure if he is really going to be able to be a "real" actor outside of this sort of thing but he was OK. Cox must have been paid lots and I hope he invested it well. Heigl is good looking but that's about it. The support cast are good and the material treats them well. Of course nobody is brilliant but within the context of the genre Rees, Barbanell, Howze, Arend and others are pretty good.
I'm not sure who the film is aiming for though. Those coming to the film ready for non-PC laughs will be disappointed while those who would appreciate the fact that the film tries not to make a big deal out of disability will probably not have bothered to watch it anyway. Overall then an average genre movie that does what sports comedies do with the twist but not many laughs and not much plot to sustain it. Kudos for not being really insensitive but that alone does not make for a good film.