Thumbsucker
by Mike Mills (II)
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Benjamin Bratt, Keanu Reeves, Lou Taylor Pucci, Tilda Swinton, Vincent D'OnofrioDirector: Mike Mills (II)
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.0; French (Subtitled); French (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 96 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-01-24
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures
Movie Reviews of Thumbsucker
Movie Review: Solid
Summary: 3 Stars
Thumbsucker is the first film made by indy director Mike Mills, in 2005, and it's a solid film, but nowhere near as good as one might presume according to its plaudits. The story was adapted from an autobiographical 1999 novel by Walter Kirn, and while it is uniformly well acted the basic problem is that it is yet in another of the series of `American suburbia is hell' films. Given the last few years of terrorism and war this simply does not resonate as strongly as it did a decade or so ago, and even then the horrors of being well-fed, having a good roof over one's head, and having to listen to one's parents was, to say the least, a tad overdone.
But, the thing that is missing is the screenplay. Having not read the novel I have to put the blame on filmmaker Mills. There is just something a bit too ABC Afterschool Special or Doogie Howser about this film. Yes, drugs are bad, and life is tough for a teenager. So? This is where the failings of the script come in, because once the film was over, I didn't really care what happened to any of the characters, unlike, say, the flawed but better Mean Creek, or even a weaker film like Igby Goes Down. As good as Pucci is there is a blandness to him that any of the Culkin actor boys does not have. One can believe that those kids, with their slightly inbred looks and glassy eyes, really do suffer in silence, as they say. Pucci, well, he's just too white bread and charmed. And things like cute girls who catch you sucking your thumb on an airplane and then flirting with you do not occur. Also, the scenes with his parents, when Justin is about to go off to college, are just a wee too precious, with tears welling in the eyes. This is where the film really goes ABC Afterschool Special, and hits the viewer over the head with the message that life is about suffering and growing. To emphasize the point, Mills even has Perry Lyman return to say these very things before Justin leaves. And even though hi scharacter seems to have gotten over his hippy phrase, he still tosses off bon mots like, `The trick is living without an answer.' Whoa, dude....that's heavy, like. Note to Mills: condescension is never a good thing in the arts. However, there are enough good performances and scenes to make up for these flaws, if just enough.
Summary of Thumbsucker
A sterling cast--including Vince Vaughn, Keanu Reeves, Vincent D'Onofrio, and especially Tilda Swinton--lifts this coming-of-age story above the norm. Justin (Lou Pucci, Personal Velocity) is 17, yet he still sucks his thumb. Depressed, he frets that his parents (D'Onofrio, Full Metal Jacket, and Swinton, Orlando) are going to split up, that he has no focus in life, and that the girl he longs for can never love him--until his orthodontist (Reeves, The Matrix) hypnotizes Justin into quitting his thumbsucking, and a questionable diagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder results in medication that launches him into a wave of over-achievement. The script, though it has some clever flourishes, never lifts beyond typical adolescent turmoil, but thanks to wonderfully vivid and multi-layered performances (including Vaughn, Wedding Crashers, as a debate teacher with hair issues), the movie never flags. Swinton also executive-produced the movie; she clearly saw in this suburban mother a character she could invest with as much emotion and intensity as the angel Gabriel (Constantine) or the White Witch of Narnia (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe). It's rich, intricate acting, never showy, yet mesmerizing. Thumbsucker also features Benjamin Bratt (Pinero) and Kelli Garner (Man of the House). --Bret FetzerComedy DVD Video
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