DVD Review of Rocket Science
Rushmore-esque Highschool Flick:Jeffrey Blitz Directs Anna Kendrick
Rocket Science, written and directed by Jeffrey Blitz, tells the story of Hal Hefner, a fifteen year old with a stutter who joins the policy debate team in order to impress a girl. Ginny Ryerson, played by Anna Kendrick, is smart, quick-witted, and ruthless in her pursuit of success. The movie begins with a scene depicting Hal’s parents splitting up at the same time as Ginny’s partner freezes up at the policy debate state championship. Though they don’t know each other at this time, their paths are soon to cross.
Ferreting Talent
One day hearing Hal being picked on by his older brother on the bus, she attempts to recruit him as her debate partner, telling him that she can sense his potential and has “ferreted” him out. Her intentions appear less than noble after she defects to a rival school, and Hal, feeling spurned, attempts to win her approval and/or seek revenge for her actions against him. The rest of the movie deals with his attempts to make sense of his emotions and find his voice. Eventually, he comes to the conclusion that life and love really shouldn’t be rocket science.
Less Than Obvious
The tendency in movies featuring characters in high school is to play to the stereotypes: jocks, geeks, cheerleaders, stoners, etc. This tendency to oversimplify is absent in Rocket Science; by doing so, the film is able to accomplish a higher level of complexity in the relationships between the characters in the school. Hal is a bit of an outcast, but he doesn’t have football players stuffing him into lockers at regular intervals. Rather, the film focuses on the estranged relationships between the characters in the movie, showing how these characters care about each other, even though it might be less than obvious at times.
Not a Pity Party
The movie belongs in the tradition of Rushmore and Thumbsucker, movies that are able to skirt the line between comedy and drama yet are able to pull off both styles equally as well. The key to this is that though there are jokes built around Hal’s stutter, the movie doesn’t encourage the audience to laugh at Hal. The director is able to accomplish this as he himself had a stutter all through high school. It would have been very easy to make a mean movie about a kid with a stutter, but it also would have been less effective and saccharine if the audience were to merely pity the poor boy with the stutter. It helps that Hal is a less than perfect character; there are times when he is obviously not acting in a manner that will help him with his dilemmas.
Comedy and Drama: Dramedy?
This movie is well worth watching. With compelling performances and an expert blend of comedy and drama, there really aren’t any areas that could have been improved. Life shouldn’t be rocket science, though it would seem unavoidably so.
