Friday, September 30, 2005

Thumbsucker (**1/2)


Yes, a movie about a high school senior (newcomer Lou Taylor Pucci) who still sucks his thumb. There are some good parts to this movie, based on a novel by Walter Kirn (Up in the Air), especially the parents (Vincent D’Onofrio and Tilda Swinton), who I think I’d have preferred as the main subjects. I preferred the family dynamics to the overly mechanistic midsection that unintentionally plays like a cautionary TV movie about drugs. The perky Polyphonic Spree song highlighted on the soundtrack unhelpfully emphasizes the twee elements of the story. Keanu Reeves (in a role he was born to play) as the boy’s orthodontist-hypnotist made me laugh (he tells him to visualize his “power animal” instead of sucking his thumb) but was pretty silly in terms of the overall story. Vince Vaughn as the hip debate-team coach is better.


circulated via email 10/27/05 and posted 11/15/13

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