| Overall Grade: |
B+ |
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| Story: |
B+ |
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| Acting: |
A- |
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| Direction: |
B |
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| Visuals: |
B |
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Always a Sucker for Good Movies
by Eric (movies profile)
Sep 7, 2007
2
of
2 people found this review helpful
Who is this kid Lou Pucci, bold enough to be seen retreating to earliest form of addiction everybody goes through. I don't know, but trust me when I say I will find out. This kid can not only act, but lead the three-ring-circus that is called Thumbsucker; a movie that shows every form of addiction and where everybody is an addict of one thing or another, be it substances or emotions.
Pucci plays Justin, who we start off seeing as a timid young man with a crush on the the debate team captain, Rebecca, shys away from friends and family and in the darkest corners he can find, participates in sucking his thumb. Justin's dad (Vincent D'Nofrio) can't understand this loopy kid, his mother (Tilda Swinton) loves him, but from a strange distance. His debate teacher (Vince Vaughn) sees him for his potential. And his orthodontist (Keaneu Reeves) sees him as a kindred spirit trying to find the answers to the hard questions about life. At least the orthodontist actively tries to help, putting a hypnotic suggestion in Justin's mind that his thumb tastes really bad. This works and doesn't work at the same time. When his school suggests Justin has HDAD, Riddilin is used. And that works all too well. He replaces one addiction with another due to his amazing climb to success with the debate team. His teacher should have stopped him or brought it up, but he was also addicted, but his addiction was Justin's winning. When Justin loses a debate, he quits, the drug's euphoria wore off. But before his ride is over, he'll get rid of old drugs and replace them with new ones, primarily weed followed by Rebbecca. He meets up with his orthodontist two more times and we see that perhaps they are kindred spirits traveling the same road at the same time.
The first act of the film is messy and a little overdramatic, but is rounded off to a great second act and brought back down to just good for it's finale. The film decided to spell things out for characters instead of allow them to think for themselves. The only scene that doesn't to a degree is one where Justin and his dad are talking about two different women who are ailing them, only they don't know that they are (or do they?). Their relationship is probably more mature than most I have seen in teen movies. When the father says "I just now got used to you.", you realize that a new chapter had already turned for them and they didn't even realize it.
But this film is also about addictions, using thumb sucking as a metaphor for the most primary reason people get addicted to the things they do, it makes them feel safe. Now are there better films about addiction? If you haven't seen Darren Arrenofsky's Requiem of a Dream, then I can't tell you how important a film you're missing.
I said this before and I'll say it again. Who is this Lou Pucci? I love this kid's performance and I hope to see more of him in the future. I also love D'Nofrio's performance as well, making this man a complex character whose seen so much disappointment, but still wants to believe in his son. Vaughn runs away with his role, making it his own, bringing some of his antics in tight control with this character.
Mike Mills wrote and directed this film based off of Walter Kim's novel. He tries too hard to be like Wes Anderson's Rushmore, which is a much better film in itself. But it does work to an extent and doesn't getting in the movie's way.
All in all, this is a good film that is worth the ticket price. And maybe you'll see something of yourself in the characters on the screen. Or maybe you'll see what you yourself are addicted to. And perhaps if your biggest obsession is with sucking your thumb, perhaps you're not as screwed up as you think you are. |
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