Chuck wants to leave home but can't make the grade for boarding school. Then he finds out the disfigured recluse living nearby is an ex-teacher.
The story of a relationship between a teacher and his troubled pupil. Justin McLeod is a former teacher who lives as a recluse on the edge of town. His face is disfigured from an automobile accident and fire ten years before in which a boy was incinerated and for which he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. He is also suspected of being a pedophile. He is befriended by Chuck, igniting the town's suspicion and hostility. McLeod instills in his protégé a love of justice and freedom from prejudice which sustains Chuck beyond the end of the film.—Mike McBain <[email protected]>
Justin McLeod is a former teacher who lives as a recluse on the edge of town after his face is disfigured from an automobile accident ten years earlier, in which a boy was incinerated--and for which he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Also suspected of being a paedophile, he is befriended by Chuck, causing the town's suspicions and hostility to be ignited.—yusufpiskin
Justin McLeod has been living the life of a recluse for seven years, ever since his face was horribly disfigured. Known by the locals as "Hamburger Head", he's the subject of many rumors and wild stories. Chuck is a young boy determined to get into the same military school as his father, despite his mother's protests and his half-sisters' mocking, even if it means studying all through the summer. Desperate for a tutor, Chuck encounters the reclusive McLeod, and together they begin to help each other deal with a world that has shunned them both.—Murray Chapman <[email protected]>
In 1968, Justin McLeod (Mel Gibson) has been living an isolated existence as a reclusive painter for the past seven years, following a car accident that left him disfigured on the right side of his face and chest burns sustained in the post-crash fire.
Chuck Nordstadt (Nick Stahl) is a young boy who endures a dysfunctional relationship with his academically brilliant half-sisters (Gloria (Fay Masterson) & Megan (Gaby Hoffmann) and their oft-divorced mother Catherine (Margaret Whitton). She is currently dating Prof. Carl Hartley (Richard Masur), a proper democrat.
One day, Chuck meets McLeod on a ferry when McLeod witnesses Chuck in an act of vandalism (he was destroying his own family's car) born of escalating frustration. Chuck is both intrigued and slightly scared of him. Chuck needs a tutor to help him pass a military academy's entrance exam that he'd failed earlier that year. Gloria is mean to Chuck and wants him to fail. Meg wants to help but she is only 10 yrs old and Chuck doesn't want her help.
Chuck goes near McLeod's house with his punk friends. Mcleod scares them away with his guard dog, but Chuck forgets his books. He goes back the next day to collect them but finds them destroyed. He sits there and loses track of time and is picked by McLeod when it is night-time, and it starts raining.
Eventually, upon discovering that McLeod is a teacher, Chuck persuades him to become his tutor. Chuck says he is the family retard, and the school is the one his father went to.While he is initially baffled by McLeod's unorthodox methods (proper Mr Miyagi style), the two eventually develop a close friendship.
Chuck keeps his daily meetings with McLeod a secret in order to avoid being scorned for associating with a disfigured man whose past is shrouded in mystery. McLeod is suspected of killing his wife or her lover. No one knows much about McLeod and few people have ever made an effort to know him. As a result, McLeod has become the object of gossip, speculation, and suspicion. "A proper troll," McLeod notes with self-deprecating humor. "Tourist board ought to pay me." Chuck says that he has his mother's permission to visit him.
Chief Wayne Stark (Geoffrey Lewis) is goaded to investigate Mcleod's past by customers at Sam the Barber (George Martin). Gloria's boyfriend Douglas Hall (Michael DeLuise) and Chuck is mean to him to return the favor to Gloria.Meg finds out that chuck is visiting Mcleod, but Chuck makes her promise not to say anything.Chuck learns from McLeod that his accident involved the death of a boy. In a fit of rage over something and Chuck mentions this to his punk friends. the rumor spreads all over town and even reaches Gloria. Gloria suspects that Chuck is somehow involved with McLeod.
Chuck finds Gloria and Douglas having sex and threatens to tell mother. In retaliation, Gloria says that Chucks father was an abusive drunk, who killed himself in a mental hospital. Chuck gets distraught and runs to McLeod. The next morning Chief Wayne arrives at McLeod's and is relieved to find Chuck there.Ultimately, Mrs. Nordstadt learns that her son has been visiting McLeod. She and the rest of the town convince themselves that McLeod is molesting Chuck, despite Chuck's adamant denials. Chuck researches McLeod's car accident, which involved the death of another boy, thus causing McLeod's fear of another attachment. Chuck is forcibly taken to a psychiatrist, who Chuck correctly suspects is also biased against McLeod.
Chuck inevitably confronts McLeod to learn the truth of his disfigurement and to discover the identity of the youth who was killed in the car crash. As it turns out, the boy was a student of McLeod's. Consequently, McLeod was unjustly branded a pedophile, exiled from his hometown, convicted of involuntary manslaughter and served three years in prison. Once his relationship with Chuck is openly known, McLeod is once again run out of town and ordered by the authorities not to have any contact with Chuck.
Chuck enters the military academy he'd worked so hard to get into. At mail call, he gets the letters he'd sent to McLeod, marked Undeliverable. Needing to know what's happened to his friend, Chuck quietly leaves his school that night, and goes back to McLeod's house. He finds it empty, but for a painting he'd done of Chuck that summer, and a letter written by McLeod. The letter tells Chuck that he's moved on, and that he wishes him the best of luck in his academic goals, thanking him for the gift of grace he'd so unexpectedly been given.
In the film's final scene, Chuck is shown graduating from the military academy as his sisters and their mom (along with her newest husband) look on proudly. Chuck sees a familiar figure in the background and recognizes it as his "faceless" tutor. They silently greet each other.
