While traveling on a bus, a young mother (Bernadette Peters) leaves her sleeping son (Frankie Muniz) on the bus to get a cold drink during a half hour rest stop. She never returns (she was raped and murdered). When the bus arrives at the end of the line, the traumatized boy pretends to be a deaf mute and is informally "adopted" by the bus station manager (Tom Skerritt) and a waitress (Judith Ivey) at the bus stop restaurant. He grows up into the town's handyman (Matthew Modine) where he knows all the town's secrets as they assume he's deaf. Based on the novel by G.D. Gearino (the book's mute is replaced by man in the film's title), it's a rather sweetly endearing film without any surprises. Even the one "twist", the reason for the mother's journey which isn't revealed until the end, is predictable. There's an amusing sequence based on John Lennon's infamous "We're bigger than Jesus" remark, in which the town's minister (Jerry O'Connell) orders a bonfire to burn a rock group's records because of the blasphemy but the fire gets out of control. Unexceptional fare. Directed by John Kent Harrison. With James Earl Jones, Claire Bloom and Anne Bobby.
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