Reece Thompson and Anna Kendrick in “Rocket Science.”
Rating: 71
Writer-director Jeffrey Blitz delivered one of the most empathetic and compelling scholastic documentaries in recent memory, 2002’s “Spellbound.” With his dramatic debut, “Rocket Science,” Blitz is in familiar territory, focusing on the world of high school debate and its impact on young stutterer Hal Hefner (Reece Thompson).
Hal is devastatingly awkward, saddled with a broken home and a psychopathic older brother (Vincent Piazza), and the stuttering only compounds the issues. But then Ginny Ryerson (Anna Kendrick) a hard-charging confidence machine whose debate partner cratered during state finals, recruits Hal as her protégé/partner, and seduces him into her world of arguments and rebuttals.
The Tony Award-nominated Kendrick is amazingly accurate in her portrayal of a hyper-intelligent debater, and the film is filled with memorable performances (particularly the ultra-weird Piazza), but “Rocket Science” is also saddled with pointless narration and a constant quirkiness that borders on contrivance. Still, “Rocket Science” understands the pain of high school better than most teen comedies, and defends its resolution with conviction.
April 30th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Hey, high school debate! What a fertile ground for raucous comedy and teen pathos !
April 30th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
I got this as a free screener, and I’m glad I did, because I don’t think I would have checked it out otherwise. My worst expectations were correct; the movie suffered from far too much Wes Anderson worship (down to the near impression of Alec Baldwin’s Tennenbaums narration) and camera work right out of the Napoleon Dynamite playbook.
That said, I liked this movie far more than I expected to. There was a really sweet story there, and the leads were great. I just wish it wasn’t muddied up by the attempts to be “indie cool.” I’m not sure about Blitz as a director; hopefully with his next film he will trust the material and not rely so much on the tricks of other indie gods.