Review of Hesher (2010) by Mc A — 21 Sep 2012

You must forgive T.J.(Devin Brochu) if he has been acting out lately, what with having been in a car accident that has left his father(Rainn Wilson) so morose and medicated that he can hardly bring himself to leave the couch and T.J. with a broken arm. Not so forgiving is Hesher(Joseph Gordon-Levitt) when T.J. throwing a rock at his squat brings in the attention of the police. In response, Hesher takes up residence in T.J.'s grandmother's(Piper Laurie) house that they share with her. Otherwise, it is business as usual at school where Dustin(Brendan Hill) bullies him until Nicole(Natalie Portman), a checkout girl, intercedes.

While perhaps overdoing the emotional climax a little bit, "Hesher" is still a wild, woolly and thoroughly unpredictable movie. A lot of that comes from telling it almost exclusively from T.J.'s point of view, allowing the camera to be stationary until something or someone enters it from stage left.(Doing that with a car accident worked well the first time, not so much the following 583 times. As much as the car accident was established from the beginning, it is still a good idea to show it in detail to show what T.J. has been yearning for.) For example, like Nicole saving T.J.'s bacon, when we expect it to be Hesher to the rescue because the one thing T.J. needs more than a crash helmet is a big brother to take the hits for him. Hesher tries but has no idea how to go about it properly. Instead, he is a focus for the characters to turn their anger outward, instead of keeping all of it inside. In fact, structure is what all of these damaged characters are looking for. That is helped by the keenly observed performances beginning with Joseph Gordon-Levitt going deeper in inhabiting his character than just the hair and dropping his voice a couple of octaves. And Natalie Portman is so awkward and ungainly that I was at first unsure that was her and Rainn Wilson thankfully dials it down several hundred notches.