A teenager tackles the mysteries of life,
love and public speaking in ROCKET SCIENCE, a wry comedy of
adolescent angst by Jeffrey Blitz, director of the Academy
Award®-nominated documentary SPELLBOUND. Making his feature
narrative debut, Blitz leaves behind the conventions and
clichés of coming-of-age tales to instead conjure a world
where everyone, regardless of age, is befuddled by desire
and the longing for human connection. Mixing humor with a
compassionate regard for his characters and their
idiosyncrasies, Blitz creates a film about the little
insights that can emerge from, and ultimately eclipse, the
agonies and disappointments of youth.
Life is not easy for teenager Hal Hefner (Reece Daniel
Thompson) of suburban Plainsboro, New Jersey. His parents,
Juliet (Lisbeth Bartlett) and Doyle (Denis O’Hare), have
abruptly split; his older brother, Earl (Vincent Piazza) is
a budding obsessive-compulsive who pushes him around; and he
has an unpredictable stutter that makes high school an
exercise in embarrassment, self-effacement and terrible
lunches. While Earl sets out to conquer the world through a
combination of assiduous planning, an intimidating demeanor
and habitual theft, Hal remains
well in the background at Plainsboro High.
Given that his active mind and quick wit tend to be obscured
by his problematic voice, Hal is not an obvious candidate
for his school’s high-powered debate team. So it comes as a
complete, though not unwelcome, surprise when the team’s
star member, the hyper-articulate Ginny Ryerson (Anna
Kendrick), approaches Hal on the school bus one afternoon.
The Plainsboro debaters need a replacement for Ginny’s
former partner, the brilliant Ben Wekselbaum (Nicholas
D’Agosto), who dropped out of school following a calamitous
performance at the New Jersey State High School Policy
Debate Championships the previous spring. Ginny, who can
compress an eight minute argument into ten seconds without
breaking a sweat, dropping a word, or botching a barb,
proceeds to present her case for Hal’s potential as a public
speaker. Her command of language is superb, her wit sharp,
and her reasoning hard to fault. She has seen Hal, she has
seen his promise. Hal is more than just shocked, or even
dazed; he is smitten.
As the notion of debating takes hold in Hal’s mind, so, too,
do thoughts of the attractive and dazzlingly confident
Ginny. Gambling that his voice will cooperate with the rest
of him, Hal joins the Plainsboro High debate team as Ginny’s
partner. Trundling back and forth to her house with his
ever-growing pile of research, Hal starts to see new
possibilities in his life. Perhaps he can tame his balky
voice and become a master of rhetoric. Perhaps he can
succeed in love -- where so many, including his parents,
have failed -- and win Ginny’s heart. The road ahead holds
many twists, turns and bumps for Hal Hefner; despite his
best efforts, people and circumstances prove more
unpredictable than any stutter. But Hal rises to the
occasion, and in doing so he scores a victory that has
nothing to do with winning a debate – and everything to do
with finding his voice.
©2007
Picture House. All rights reserved.
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