Rocket Science (2007, Director: Jeffrey Blitz): This first fictional feature from the director of Oscar-nominated doc Spellbound sounded promising. Fifteen-year-old Hal Hefner (Reece Daniel Thompson) tries to overcome his painful stutter by joining the high school debate squad, spurred by the presence of the lovely but fast-talking Ginny Ryerson (Anna Kendrick). I’m no stranger to the high school nerd makes good comedy, and consider myself a fan, so it’s a little disappointing to have to give this film a so-so review. The problem for me was that I’ve seen this movie done better elsewhere. In fact, the plot is more than a little similar to Thumbsucker (2005), Mike Mills’ feature debut about a teenager who tries to overcome another “handicap” (sucking his thumb) by, among other things, joining the high school debate squad. There’s even a physical resemblance between that film’s star, Lou Taylor Pucci, and the similarly treble-monikered Reece Daniel Thompson. But Thumbsucker was based on a novel by Walter Kirn, and felt more ambitious, not to mention being funnier.
It’s not that Rocket Science isn’t likeable. There is some genuine humour and it’s hard not to root for Hal. But the stuttering isn’t just Hal’s problem. The narrative itself seems to proceed in fits and starts, and by the end, nothing has really happened. Hal has supposedly “found his voice” but he really hasn’t. We’re not really sure whether the debating thing is going to continue, and we’ve never really seen him do his stuff in front of a crowd. The only hint that he’s actually put any work into the research (and his attempts to woo Ginny) are a series of pretty standard montages. I wanted to know what they were talking about. To make things worse, there’s a voiceover that borders on unbearable. It’s not clear whether this is the adult Hal reflecting on his youth, or some all-wise overseer who knows it’s all going to work out. Either way, it was trite and annoying. And while Hal emerges as the most complete character, no one else in the film is fleshed out in any way, with his parents being the most glaring absence. Unfortunately, many of the other characters in the film are nothing more than quirky stereotypes.
Rocket Science is a film that is both familiar and unpredictable, and while this tension could have been a strength, it ended up frustrating me instead. If I recall correctly, the story is a little bit autobiographical, since director Jeffrey Blitz himself suffers from a stutter. I wish that he had trusted more in his own experience and maybe given us a film that didn’t try to play for laughs so much. If he had stripped away a few of the more gimmicky touches and given us a more personal film, I think I would have enjoyed it more.
Buy Rocket Science from Amazon.ca
Buy Rocket Science from Amazon.com
(6/10)
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