If you can get past the very silly initial premise, this is an ultimately winning parable that develops into a real tear-jerker towards the end. Joe Pesci plays a hobo squatting in the boiler-room beneath a university library. Monty (Brendan Fraser), a graduate whose thesis is threatened by computer failure, is on his way to copy what he's printed of it when he trips, the thesis falling through a grating into Pesci's hands. Down in the boiler room Fraser finds Pesci beginning to incinerate his beloved work because he doesn't approve of its sentiments. Now you and I would have thrown ourselves at the tramp and wrested away the essay. But not Fraser. He strikes up a deal with Pesci, offering daily favours in return for the pages, one by one... Naturally, the hobo proves to be wiser than the students and helps them on the road to citizenship, although he also proves to be dying of asbestosis. The film's simple virtues and direct sentiments are quite effective at times, and Pesci never overplays. In the end, the story passes perhaps not with honours, but at least with credit.

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