DATE REVIEWED: 9/17/24
TITLE: Jimmy
BOX OFFICE RATED: NR (This is not suitable for GOD’s children.)
PRODUCTION YEAR: 2013 Bridgestone Multimedia Group / Dog Days Entertainment / Whitlow Films / Level Path Productions
RATING [1 LEAST FAVORITE TO 5 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED]: 1
REASON: This movie takes place in Piney Grove, Georgia, in Cabarrus County and began with someone pushing 14-year-old special needs Jimmy Lee Mitchell III into the swamp with the intention of murder, after already throwing Jimmy’s bicycle into the murky water. The movie then switched to two months earlier, where little Jimmy played baseball in the woods with a Watcher, one of his many imaginary people that he saw and no one else could. The Watcher threw the ball too high and it landed into the shallow water, and Jimmy’s dad, Lee, found his son (knew of his son’s fear of water for many years) and told him to go fetch the ball but Jimmy was terrified of water from a traumatic experience in his early years so he refused. Jimmy’s stepmom, Ellen, (only mom in Jimmy’s life and she had a bound as strong as any biological bond with her stepson Jimmy) wasn’t pleased that husband Lee, an attorney, was representing a criminal Jake Garner on drug charges. Jimmy regularly washed the cars at the police station, and Ellen’s once removed cousin, Deputy Garret Askew, went against boss Sheriff Brinson’s rules and let Jimmy play with the lights and sirens. As Jimmy was left alone so the deputy could get them both a cola beverage inside the government building (mom didn’t approve in junk drinks but dad did) the sheriff pulled up in his car and didn’t see Jimmy washing the tires on the other squad car. Jimmy overheard Sheriff Brinson and plain-clothed Detective Milligan discussing how the drugs they found belonged to Lenny and not Jake. The sheriff said Lenny was an undercover with the Georgia Bureau. However, Sheriff Brinson didn’t like snaky Jake and wanted him to go to prison, so the sheriff instructed Milligan to report that the drugs were found in Jake’s house and Sheriff Brinson said he would sign off on that false report. Later that evening at the dinner table at home, Lee discussed the case as he represented Jake and he didn’t think Jake was guilty. Jimmy spoke up and told him what he heard the Sheriff and the deputy talking about outside the police department. Lee, Ellen and Grandpa James Lee couldn’t believe that Jimmy knew about crooked Sheriff Brinson’s private conversation. Jimmy’s parents took him to the courtroom to testify even though mom didn’t think it was a good idea to expose their special son like that on the stand, but dad did because Lee was gung-ho about winning his case and exposing the corrupt police department. While he waited beside his mom, Jimmy spotted the snake tattoo on Jake’s arm and wanted to get a tattoo of his dog Buster but Ellen told him no (kids copy). Lee called in Dr. Susan Elaine Paris, the high school psychologist from Jimmy’s school, to testify on Jimmy’s mental state. Ms. Paris announced that Jimmy’s IQ was between low and average, but she believed from the very short amount of time she spent with him that he was an honest person and she learned from Jimmy at public school that he believed in God and was taught the Ten Commandments by mom Ellen at home. Dr. Paris further explained that Jimmy had a fear due to a traumatic incident with his biological mom and he had hallucinations and imagined seeing people called Watchers that weren’t there. Mr. Laney, the state’s prosecuting attorney, declared that special Jimmy was unfit to testify, but Judge Jill Robinson from Jimmy’s church allowed Jimmy to proceed with his testimony and called back the jurors into the courtroom after Jimmy answered questions to her satisfaction. At home later, Jimmy later asked his family about what would happen to Jake and Jimmy thought since dad Lee was on Jake’s side and defending him in court that Jake was a upstanding person and wanted to invite Jake to have dinner with them at their home. Grandpa didn’t go to court as he had heart trouble. Lee made it home and was very excited to announce that the case against Jake was dismissed (special Jimmy’s testimony) and Lee was extremely happy to have exposed criminal activity within the police department and bring down Sheriff Brinson. Grandpa wasn’t happy that Lee went after the Sheriff. Jimmy was then upset when the adults told him that he couldn’t wash the police cars anymore after he told the truth in court and couldn’t understand why his weekly job was taken away from him. To fill his time, Grandpa invited Jimmy over to his house. That night as his wife tucked their son into bed and reassured the special child that he was loved, Lee listened to Ellen reminiscing with Jimmy about how they met when she was a clerk at the courthouse and he was four years old and how they were both happy to be mother and son as a family that God made happen. Ellen sent Jimmy and Buster off alone to Grandpa’s house for the first time as she watched him from the sidewalk. Grandpa used to climb poles when he worked for the electric company, but he couldn’t anymore because of his heart condition so he started teaching Jimmy how to climb the pole in the backyard using the equipment he had. Jimmy almost fell from the pole, but Grandpa made him get over his fear and keep going a few more steps up the pole. Jimmy was upset because Grandpa told Jimmy to keep the pole climbing a secret until he reached the top as a surprise. Jimmy always told Ellen everything and he did not like hiding things from his mom. Garret picked Jimmy up outside of Grandpa’s house in his squad car and proved he wasn’t mad at Jimmy by letting him play with the lights and sirens as he Garret drove down the street. Sheriff Brinson was no longer in his sheriff’s position and wasn’t allowed in uniform and appeared to be patrolling the streets in an unmarked vehicle with a police radio. On Sunday at the Methodist church, Jimmy’s high school friend, Max Cochran, invited him to help out with high school football team since Max’s dad was the coach. Max had a black eye so Ellen didn’t think Jimmy would be safe, but Lee let Jimmy go hang out with his friend. Another day at Grandpa’s house, one of the Watchers wanted Jimmy to invite Grandpa to church, so he did and Grandpa promised to go if Jimmy kept climbing higher up the pole, which Jimmy did. Ellen came to check on her son and was upset to find out that Grandpa and Jimmy were going behind her back doing dangerous things for her special needs boy. Grandpa argued that the equipment was extra safe and the boy could not fall (unless Jimmy somehow in his panic attack fear unhooked the belt he was connected to while he was high up dozens of feet off the ground on the pole). Ellen had doubts but agreed to let Jimmy climb and recruited her husband Lee to help. However, Lee didn’t pay attention to his dad or his son and was on his cell phone with work in Grandpa’s backyard and ignored his family. At church, the church Watcher whispered something to Brother Fitzgerald, so the preacher called people forward to accept Jesus into their lives. Jimmy went to the front and prayed with brother Fitzgerald against his parents’ wishes, and Grandpa left the church at that time since he heart pain and didn’t witness Jimmy accepting Jesus into his life. As they left the church, Jimmy’s parents scared him with the idea that he would have to go underwater to be baptized. Jimmy then Jimmy heard a voice in his head telling him “Behold, I make all things new.” Ellen found Jimmy later at home in the bathroom with the door open, his shoes and socks off with his clothes on, and him filling up the tub with water (Jimmy was OK taking showers only and not baths). He told his mom that he believed it was God that told him that he no longer had a fear of water and put the verse in his head, so Ellen helped clothed Jimmy get into the bathtub full of water on foot at a time. However, Jimmy had a huge panic attack before he could get both feet in the tub of water. Another day, Ellen and Lee talked to Brother Fitzgerald at church and explained that Lee’s first wife, Vera, supposedly slipped and knocked herself unconscious as gave baby Jimmy a bath. Baby Jimmy was submerged underwater for a long period of time and almost drowned. Ellen noticed Jimmy a few bench seats away looking at the invisible church Watcher and wanted Jimmy to ask for help to get over his fear of water but Jimmy said he couldn’t because the church Watcher disappeared. Jimmy went to his high school Panthers football practice as planned with his friend, where Coach Sellers tested out Jimmy’s photographic memory by making him sprint fast to find the other coach in his office. Jimmy didn’t like sprinting fast and then Jimmy’s friend told his coach dad to stop telling Jimmy that he would have to sprint fast again if he didn’t listen. Jimmy and Max were assigned as water boys. Jake came around and said hello to the younger boys, and then coach Sellers scared Jake off as Jake when the coach tried to walk over to Jake and speak to him. Jimmy later overheard quarterback Brian Brown and running back Hal Shanks in the high school locker room discussing how Jake was paying them $1,000 to throw their next game. Jimmy revealed his presence and tried to join in on the conversation by telling the older boys that he knew Jake too (Jimmy didn’t know that the players planned to get paid to lose on purpose and that was the meaning of throw the game), so Brian threw Jimmy around and threatened him until Max arrived in the locker room and fought them off his friend using a helmet when he saw Jimmy getting roughed up by the bigger players. Jimmy refused to tell his parents about what happened at school when he came home with a black eye and liked the attention of putting steak meat on it like his friend Max said he did for his black eye so his parents dismissed it as a harmless fight. Grandpa took Jimmy to a fishing tournament at Webb’s Pond that cost $50 to enter. The two stayed on solid ground since Jimmy didn’t like the water. Grandpa left Jimmy alone with the bait cooler to go back to the truck for something alone in the woods. An adult from a different part of the state saw Jimmy alone in the woods and his name was Alfred Walker. Walker took advantage of Jimmy’s special behavior and played a game with Jimmy to find out what bait Grandpa used as bait so Walker could win the tournament. Alfred used it to win the first-place prize of $450, and he gave everyone a hint what the secret recipe was by showing his muscle like Grandpa had just explained to Jimmy the ingredients in his bait back in the woods. Grandpa knew that Walker must have spoken to Jimmy when Jimmy was alone. Grandpa and Jimmy won $300 in second place, and then they headed home. Jimmy rode his bicycle all the way to the fishing place but he was too tired to ride it back home. As Grandpa lifted the bike into the back of the truck he felt pain in his heart. He told Jimmy not to ride in the back of the truck but to get in the cab with him. As worn out Jimmy lay his head against the passenger window, Grandpa had a heart attack and passed out behind the wheel, so the truck ran off the road and crashed. Grandpa was taken to the hospital, and deputy Garret consoled Jimmy at the scene of the accident. Jimmy and Ellen visited Grandpa, and then Garret invited Jimmy back to the station to wash cars since things seemed to calm done a bit, which Ellen approved. Ellen and Jimmy went home, but Lee called to tell Ellen shortly after that Grandpa died so when Ellen started crying on the phone so did Jimmy because he didn’t like his mom crying and then she told him Grandpa died. Brian and Hal threw the Panthers-Eagles high school football game as planned so the Panthers lost and the boys collected their money from Jake on the bleachers later that night when nobody appeared to be around. Jimmy was putting trash bags in the trash cans near the bleachers and Jimmy overheard Jake offer the boys more money to move drugs through the school, but they refused to be drug dealers so Jake threatened them into it since they were already criminals. However, Lee yelled for his son Jimmy since it was time to go home, and that alerted criminal Jake to Jimmy’s presence right below the bleachers by the trashcan. Trying to give her special son more independence since that is what the majority believe is best for special kids, Ellen sent Jimmy off alone to the police station on his bicycle the next day, and she called Garret to tell the deputy to look for Jimmy’s arrival as he stood outside by the patrol cars. Jake was in between on the route in a secluded area with few houses and he pretended to have a flat tire on his truck. Jimmy stopped to offer his assistance but Jake kidnapped him and tied him up at a cabin in the woods near Webb’s Pond. Jake terrorized Jimmy to be quiet and used his fear of water against him to get answers to questions about Hal and Brian that would put Jake away in prison if Jimmy testified in court. After he realized that special Jimmy could put him away for good, Jake told Jimmy he was never going home to his mama and Jake would make up a story that Jimmy drowned when he got close to the water and fell off his bike. Jake silenced Jimmy by putting his hands over his mouth when two armed hunters came near the cabin and saw Jimmy’s bike in the back of Jake’s truck. The men with rifles knocked at the cabin door but got no answer, so they walked off and called the police. Deputy Garret had already called Ellen since Jimmy never showed up at the police station. The police were already out searching for Jimmy all over. Ellen was regretful that she let Jimmy out of sight. Deputy Garret took Lee in his squad car and they searched the cabin, which was empty because Jake went to the pond with Jimmy. They found Jimmy’s broken glasses that were thrown off in the struggle when Jimmy left the cabin and Jimmy was forced into Jake’s truck again. The deputy found Jake’s truck by an unauthorized area by the pond just as Jake threw Jimmy’s bicycle into the water and planned to throw Jimmy in next. As the deputy called out to stop, Jake shot officer Garret in the leg and shot Lee in the arm, and Lee fell into the pond and never resurfaced. Jake ran out of bullets when Sheriff Brinson appeared on scene so the sheriff apprehended Jake quickly using his gun and handcuffed Jake to a tree. Jimmy and a Watcher jumped into the pond hand in hand to rescue his dad. Sheriff Brinson and Deputy Garret helped pull Jimmy and unconscious Lee out of the water. In the end, Brinson got his job back as sheriff, and Lee didn’t see his son’s Watcher but now believed Jimmy that the Watchers existed. Jimmy later climbed to the top of Grandpa’s pole and got baptized underneath the water in the pond. The movie cover art listed, Alex Kendrick, Fireproof & Courageous “A gripping film for the mind and the heart!” Greg Wright, Past the Popcorn “Unforgettable.” Jon and Andy Erwin, October Baby “A charming story with heartfelt performances.”