Simon Birch is a 1998 American comedy-drama film loosely based on the 1989 novel A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving and written for the screen and directed by Mark Steven Johnson in his directorial debut.

[3] The film stars Ian Michael Smith, Joseph Mazzello, Jim Carrey, Ashley Judd, and Oliver Platt.

The main plot centers on 12-year-old Joe Wenteworth and his best friend Simon Birch, who was born with dwarfism.

He loves baseball even though he almost never gets to play during Little League, and when he does, it's only to get a walk due to his abnormally small strike zone.

Her refusal to reveal the identity of the father has resulted in Joe's reputation as the town's love child.

The police chief agrees to release them if they volunteer at the children's retreat over winter break.

Howard's harness breaks due to his weight, swinging him back and forth repeatedly, eventually vomiting on Leavey.

Russell suspends Simon from the church, expels him from the winter retreat, and refuses him the return of his baseball cards.

While Simon and Joe are riding the bus home, the driver swerves to miss a deer and it crashes into a lake.

With the driver abandoning the bus and Russell unconscious, Simon takes command and gets everyone out with Joe's help, but nearly drowns while saving the last child.

He sees Marjorie call Simon brave and kiss him, before leaving and letting Joe talk to him.

Simon wakes up upon hearing him, remarking how his small size worked to his advantage in evacuating the kids.

[8] After Smith's parents read through the novel A Prayer for Owen Meany they agreed to let him work on the film.

The film's original motion picture soundtrack was released on compact disc, LP and audio cassette on April 24, 1998, through Sony Wonder, Hollywood Records and Epic Records featuring the following songs: Simon Birch holds a 44% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the site's consensus calling the film "Overly mushy; tries too hard to pull at the heart-strings.