Who would have thought? After I watched the trailer and headed to my little seat in the grand theater, I expected to have my funny bone tickled all night long, instead all I got was life. Think about the story, here is a boy (young adult) who has a stuttering problem. He’s hit on by the chief hottie from the school’s debate team and ultimately recruited to be her debate partner. Of course, he’s not looking to debate more than he is looking for love, the young experimental puppy love, that is. His brother is whacked, his mom is whacked, his neighbor is whacked, his dad is bored and his only friend tried the Kama Sutra on the family dog and killed it; this film should be an outright riot. Life and the shit that happens along the way is funny, but somehow Rocket Science made it depressing and, at times, a little boring. A few highlights that I must note would be a killer soundtrack and at least Hollywood didn’t get the opportunity to bastardize it; you got it folks, there is no special happy ending here.
Rocket Science
2 & 1/2 Stars
I’ve got to give the film credit, it’s a fresh approach to what so many would expect to see the underdog rise to the top and conquer the evil bitch at the end, but he doesn’t and ultimately comes nowhere close to winning. Newcomer, Reece Daniel Thompson, is brilliant in his stuttering struggling teen role; he keeps up the dialogue and character 100% never letting the audience down. It’s quite wonderful that there are absolutely no “beautiful” bobble-heads in this film, the talent all look like real life people who have been around the block a few times or so green that they just stepped out of their training pants. A few humorous moments do appear from time to time, but not a laugh-out-loud type of humor, but more a “damn, I could see myself doing that” kind of humor. The storyline meshes fairly well and the music blends right in with every scene. It’s a film that many can relate to, whether or not you’ve ever stuttered, certainly many of us have experienced some form of utter humiliation in high school; mine was high waters.
 |
| Rocket Science…Great Soundtrack. |
Partially based on real life experiences, Rocket Science brings a spark of life to the teen indie circuit. The director, Jeffrey Blitz (Spellbound), shows a great deal of compassion and interest through the characters and finished product of Rocket Science. A teen, Hal Hefner (Reece Thompson) is approached by a very beautiful debate captain, Ginny Ryerson (Anna Kendrick), and asked to join her team. Hal, baffled by her straightforward approach and cold direction towards his handicap, stuttering, finally decides what the hell and joins up. At the same time, his brother, Earl Hefner (Vincent Piazza), has become a thief, but he’s a thief with a plan and a constant desire to show his brotherly love and taunt Hal on a regular bases. The boys’ mom and dad had recently separated and started to date, leaving the boys to their own dysfunctional relationship with life. Living with their mother, they get to experience the nasty freak out sex that their mother and next door neighbor, Judge Pete (Steve Park), have on a regular bases and deal with Judge Pete’s, possibly gay and not all there in the head, son, Heston (Aaron Yoo). Back to the studying and practicing for the big debate; Ginny, leading Hal around by his teenage male fantasies, bails at the last minute leaving Hal to defend for himself and utterly ruined. The stalking begins, he starts to hang out at the house across the street from Ginny’s, here he meets Lewis Garrles (Josh Kay) a younger comrade in awe who runs around in women’s bras and practicing the Kama Sutra on anything that will hold still. Better yet, Lewis parents are going through couples music therapy to fix their relationship, that’s a nice touch with the cello and piano, a better touch when Hal gets wasted and throws the cello through Ginny’s front window, after tossing it up there multiple failed times. Finally Hal decides to get even with the coldhearted bitch and finds her archenemy, Ben Wekselbaum (Nicholas D’Agosto), known better as the god of debate. In the beginning of the film Ben and Ginny were mere sentences away from being national debate champions, when Ben went silent and started to grin. He had decided that he was tired of debating, dropped out of school and began working in a dry cleaning store; he thought that was the true meaning of life. Hal hunted Ben down and convinced him to return for one last debate, to help him show Ginny what for. When they arrived to the debate as a home-schooled team, the duo was found out and kicked out of the competition for not truly being home schooled. Hal finally got up the nerve to go confront Ginny and tell her that he may have failed to exact revenge this time, he might have had an off day, but it wouldn’t always be that way and just she watch out when he has an on day. The film ended with Hal ordering pizza on the boardwalk and asking his father for a bit of advice, of course, his father was way too tired to oblige and referenced to just giving up and accepting life as it is.
Wasn’t that a depressing ending, but then again it’s nice not to see your typical boy is a weird gooey freak and no girl wants to lay him and then boy gets all better and strong and gets the chic in the end. Rocket Science might be a tad slow in places, but isn’t life that way? It might have had a more realistic happy ending and didn’t match up to what the trailer (or a few critic’s quotes) eludes to, but overall it was a pleasant surprise and got a few giggles out of me. The actors did a damn fine job and the director certainly added his heart and passion to every scene; nice job, I think I’m going to change my rating from a 2 to a 2.5. (I’m like just a smidge away from a 3)
