A whimsical, feel-good comedy about stalking, lying, hustling and exploitation of the physically challenged. His relationship with wife, Serena (Kathleen Quinlan), and son, Nick (Zane Carney), in a shambles, fast-talking, second-rate agent Sammy (Billy Crystal)
is in Romania to visit his only client, an up-and-comer starring in a Conan the Barbarian-type sword-and-sorcery epic. Unfortunately for Sammy, the savvy youngster uses the occasion of his visit to fire him. On the verge of suicidal despair, Sammy happens upon a local lad with, well,
gigantic potential. Raised in a monastery, Max (Gheorghe Muresan) is an articulate recluse with the soul of a poet and the body of a human redwood tree. He's educated himself in the classics but longs for a real friend, and in his naivete imagines that friend to be Sammy. Sammy, meanwhile,
envisions a mutually lucrative future in movie villainy for his giant, and lures Max to America by promising a reunion with childhood sweetheart Lillianna (Joanna Pacula), who now lives in New Mexico. Crystal is a funny guy, and he wrings some laughs out of Sammy's "always thinkin', always
thinkin' " shtick. But Sammy doesn't come off as the lovable, small-time hustler Crystal seems to intend: He's a shmuck, a leech, a heartless operator and a loser to boot. Newcomer Muresan's titanic proportions certainly qualify him to play gentle giants, but he's no natural actor and is
further hampered by the fact that he sounds as though he learned his lines phonetically. Astonishingly enough, the movie's funniest scene belongs to action Buddhist Steven Seagal. Why someone who's never shown a glimmer of self-deprecating humor would agree to play a part that mocks him
mercilessly is hard to imagine, but it makes for a hell of a laugh. --Maitland McDonagh
