Although this is a great movie, it barely holds a candle to the book on which it was based, A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY by the great John Irving. This movie barely touches the depth of the book. Due to the limits of movie making, they had to cut out a large portion of the book, concentrating on Simon's (Owen in the book) childhood. The book has the time and space to delve deeper into Simon's personality, his teen years, and early adulthood, and really plays up and explains the instrument of God theme much, much better. The movie ends with Simon's childhood. The plot of the movie basically cuts out half (or more) of the book, so the basic message of the story is lost, or not as deeply felt as it is in the book. There are many funny and interesting moments that would have made excellent scenes. Instead of the movie, there should have been a television mini-series which would be the only feasable way to translate this book into a motion picture. John Irving did not allow the producers to use the name of the novel for the movie, feeling they couldn't do the book justice. And he was right. Simon Birch is a great movie, one that I highly recomend, but you really should read the novel to get the full impact of Owen Meany (aka Simon Birch).