he wasn't mentally disturbed he was just a very sensitive child, I was that way when I was a kid, I cried all the time and acted a lot like kevin did bit I grew out of it just like kevin did

I totally identified with Kevin - when this movie came out and now. I was a kid like Kevin. He has anxiety. It's actually pretty common. Kids with anxiety worry about all kinds of things and they get extremely upset when things don't go the way they thought they would. They put a lot of pressure on themselves to make everything right. So yes, losing his retainer would have been a BIG BIG BIG deal to a kid like Kevin. Had I done something like that at that age, I probably would not have slept for days.
He doesn't need to be in a mental hospital, he needs adults who understand that he deals with anxiety and he needs to learn coping skills to manage it.
We understand these things now. In 1989 we were only beginning to understand what anxiety in children was.

The kid was two steps away from donning a dress and strangling several prostitutes
"Damn you Weatherby Savings and loan, I spit at you!"

It's realistic. I find this movie unbearably painful to watch because I see myself being like Kevin (maybe even worse), with a case of emotional imbalance and Aspergers, among other things. It did not turn out so well for me in the end.
"You keep him in here, and make sure HE dosen't leave!"

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Whatever,but you seem so self-centered to judge everything else, even a fictitious movie by your own life? I tell you, you'd make a crappy parent. Go read some books by doctors about child-rearing a lot of kids do things like this because they have an underlying medical problem. Stop dwelling on just your own point of view, you don't know everything, and in fact it sound like you know less than normal, and you have a tendency to talk about what you know less of.

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I was just as bad when I was Kevin's age. I had serious anxiety issues however I was a perfectionist at the same time. The lightest issue in front of other people caused by to flip out. As I got older I sort of outgrew it but still I have issues with the same type of anxiety.

I am 25 years old and I still cry because other people don't like me. I don't do it in public, but I do have those times.

your reaction is very similar to rants of obese people who managed to be size 0s after months or years of intense work-outs and dieting.. you're the one who has serious issues

Wow. The OP must be extremely immature and oblivious to the human condition. First of all, it's an 8-year-old kid, not an adult, secondly the freak out was not just about the retainer. Did you pay attention to anything that happened prior to the retainer disappearing?
Let's just hope that someone like you will never be a parent. That would be a sad day for any kid you have who has any sort of emotional problems. To imh that the kid should be in a looney bin is beyond ridiculous.
"It's Minnie Pearl's murder weapon."

Don't you love people who when they critique movies and something that's different then what they were in similar situation instantly means this movie is wrong, you know because EVERYONE is going to have the exact same experiences as you.

So Kevin in this movie was a lot like me when I was his age. Around 7-9 years old, I went through a phase where I was highly, super sensitive. I realize now that it was because I had a lot of anxiety at this age and was very neurotic (for reasons too long to list here - while I had a mostly happy childhood, it was peppered with more trauma and stress than a kid that age deserves). Looking back, I also realize I had bad coping skills at the time and could not deal with things that went wrong and would do what Kevin did in the movie (burst into tears or have a fit).
I eventually grew out of it and grew up to deal with stress way better than anyone who knew me as a kid expected. My Mom has said to me several times that I am the strongest out of my sisters & I - made me feel very happy when she said this!
Kevin definitely had emotional problems. But like me, kids can grow out of it if given the proper guidance and nurturing. I don't think he had mental issues at all, was just a high-strung kid.

I had a relative who used to throw major tempter tantrums when he was a kid. Over the years, it was suggested he get involved in martial arts. Guess what? It worked.
Kevin had issues, there was no doubt about it. But your idea that he needed to be locked away like he was Michael Myers is an overreaction. Crying a lot and worrying too much - which was essentially Kevin's problem - is hardly a reason to lock somebody up in the nuthouse.
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That's a good point.

He was feeding off of his Dad's constant state of anxiety. Notice during the school play when Steve Martin started making that exact same scrunched up face. When Steve finally chilled, his kid improved too.

Kevin was a very nice kid, I think he just his self confidence wasn't very good sometimes, so you tend to take small things far harder than others, such as not having enough friends, acceptance, or feeling like you're "no good" at something. That's something the OP and others even today can't always understand. The jerk kid on the baseball team telling him he stunk had problems, not him!
He clearly got some of this from Gil (who was high strung and worried alot himself). I think Gil tried so hard to be a perfect dad, since Frank wasn't.
The arcade scene wasn't the best example. Kev already got bullied by another kid for his money, and being already sensitive and having low self confidence on top of that, is what made him so upset when he lost his retainer. $200 in 1989 money is about $500 now with inflation, so it's not cheap, and he probably worried his parents would be mad at him for losing it.
Things like this really make this movie way ahead of its time. In 1989 almost nobody was talking about things like Autism (which he might've had a milder form of), and just relegated him to needing Special Ed or therapy.

I took note of the fact that the "Kevin character" on the TV show (Max) has Aspergers.
I just hated how Max's parents reacted to their son having Asperger's. It was like it was the end of the world for them. And then, we have one of his aunts worrying that her daughter has Asperger's too, but no, thank God, she's only really intelligent! As if we aspies can't be that too! Bleh I love this movie, but hated that show.
Intelligence and purity.

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Yeah, I would say Asperger's Syndrome for him, at worst. Or maybe ADHD. He wasn't eccentric or a sociopath, just very tense and high-strung

I have a child with Autism, and yeah, something like losing a retainer would definitely make my kid scream.

I took note of the fact that the "Kevin character" on the TV show (Max) has Aspergers.
If this film was released today, I think they'd say Kevin was on the spectrum, for sure. He had many red flags. Being the 80s, though, he was essentially labeled a "mental case."

I know he's a kid and troubled, but he really overreacted to so many things. Like when the lights go out at Susan's he totally panicked! Come on kid, you're not 4!
The lights went out, it was still daytime.relax!
But it was dark enough for Gil to go looking for a flash light, and mistaking his sister's vibrator for one! So I guess it was dark enough for Kevin to panic.
Intelligence and purity.

I know he's a kid and troubled, but he really overreacted to so many things. Like when the lights go out at Susan's he totally panicked! Come on kid, you're not 4!
The lights went out, it was still daytime.relax!
The retainer I could see screaming about, as they are expensive and he likely thought his parents would be very angry. Plus, like another poster said, he was already pissed off to begin with.
That said, I still felt Kevin almost needed a smack a couple times there, and NOT such mollycoddling by his parents! If that were me, my mom would have said "All right all right! Calm down already! Its not the end of the world!"
Some of his problem I thought was his parents. He needed to toughen up a bit, even for a kid.
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He just needed good experience and confidence boosters. You can see he's clearly better at the end after he caught the fly ball at the baseball game.