All of us have gone or will go through the process of growing up.
Unless you are some sort of giant, sentient amoeba, in which case I surrender. Or you are my parents, in which case I still have some questions about what you had around to stand on before Earth was made.
Exceptions aside, growing up is a universal experience that tends to share a single defining trait: it sucks. If you’d ever like to be reminded of that by a pretty-looking but boring-feeling movie, give 2005’s Thumbsucker a shot.
High schooler Lou Taylor Pucci sucks his thumb. Alongside that, he has the regular teen boy problems: trouble with his parents, an awkward attraction to debate classmate Kelli Garner, and an ADD diagnosis. Despite looking for help from his dad, prescription drugs and illegal ones, nothing seems to help.
I’m not entirely sure what put Thumbsucker on my radar. I think I heard Keanu Reeves had a funny role in it.
This is true. As Pucci’s orthodontist, Reeves is a long-haired New Age type, advising Pucci to overcome his childish habit by envisioning his power animal. This is fun, because when we think of Reeves responding to a psychological question, we imagine him leaning back in his recliner, nodding thoughtfully and mumbling something about the wisdom of toads.
But there isn’t much of Reeves in Thumbsucker . Instead, there’s an awful lot of oppressive indieness.
The most immediate sign is the soundtrack (indie movie motto: “Yes, We’ve Got Elliott Smith Songs), but the most grating, in this particular instance, is the dialogue. Each line is so heavy with the subtext of how they really feel you fully expect the text-floor to collapse with a mighty groan, spilling its angsty characters down into the text-basement where they keep all these feelings in dusty little bottles with handwritten labels.
Of course, it isn’t the notion of subtext itself that’s the problem. It’s writer/director Mike Mills’ attempts at it, which are approximately as subtle as a cat on the piano. Not a cat trying to make the transition after training on the harpsichord, mind you.
A cat with no musical training at all.
Not to make Thumbsucker sound like a total gloomy dread-fest. The cinematography’s brilliant, and it’s got some nice performances, especially out of Reeves and dorky debate teacher Vince Vaughn. Pucci’s decent too.
Thing is, it feels like Mills could make a pretty great movie. But while I sympathized with some of Thumbsucker’s coming-of-age confusion, for the most part it was too obvious, too cliched, and too formless to keep me involved.
* Contact Ed Robertson at edwrobertson@gmail.com.
