The Mighty

The Mighty is a 1998 American coming of age buddy comedy-drama film directed by Peter Chelsom and written by Charles Leavitt. Based on the book Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick, the film stars Sharon Stone, Gena Rowlands, Gillian Anderson, Harry Dean Stanton, Kieran Culkin, James Gandolfini and Elden Henson. The film received positive reviews from critics and Stone was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. Plot Kevin "Freak" Dillon is a 12-year-old boy suffering from Morquio syndrome and living with his mother Gwen "Fair Gwen" Dillon. He is extremely intelligent and is obsessed with flights of fancy, but due to his disability, he walks with leg braces and crutches. Meanwhile, Maxwell "Max" Kane is a 14-year-old beastly yet good-natured boy with learning challenges and living with his maternal grandparents Susan "Gram" and Elton "Grim" Pinneman. He has flunked the seventh grade twice and is tormented by Tony "Blade" Fowler, a teenage delinquent who is the leader of a local bully gang named the "Doghouse Boys". When Kevin is assigned as Max's reading tutor, they form a bond of friendship over the similar circumstances they share, such as both being outcasts in their school and their fathers abandoning them. Freak and Max go to a local festival to watch a firework show where they get attacked by Blade and his gang. The two then escape into a nearby lake with Freak riding on Max's shoulders. Freak later witnesses the "Doghouse Boys" putting someone's purse in a sewer. The two retrieve the purse but are once again confronted by Blade and his gang. They attempt to attack Freak, but Max stops them by picking up a manhole cover and throwing it at the gang, forcing them to flee in a panic. Max and Freak find that the purse belongs to a woman named Loretta Lee. They return the purse to Loretta who is married to Iggy Lee, a former gang leader. The couple are old friends of Max's father Kenny "Killer" Kane, who is currently in prison for the strangulation murder of Max's mother when Max was four years old, which Max witnessed.