Review of Rocket Science (2007) by Steph O — 10 Sep 2010

"Rocket Science" is about Hal (Reece Thompson), a stuttering, awkward teenage guy who decides to join his super competitive high school debating team after falling for it's female captain - Ginny (Anna Kendrick). It's a great little coming-of-age indie. Never predictable. Frequently funny. Reece Thompson is great too. His stuttering isn't even annoying.

Before going to the cafeteria every day, Hal practices ordering his lunch so that he won't stutter when he gets there. It doesn't work. When the teacher asks questions during class, he knows the answer. Hal is about to say the answer, but is too scared because he won't be able to say it without stuttering. When he is chosen to come up on stage to answer a question in front of a bunch of students, he can barely get one word out. Poor guy. But his life as he knows it completely changes when Ginny decides that Hal should be on her debating team. Ginny tells him he'll be great at it because he has something to prove. Unfortunately Hal believes Ginny, and falls for her... both of which don't seem to be very good ideas.

Anna Kendrick is one of the only young actresses I've ever seen who can play a really wordy character and not sound as if they've never said those words before. I can buy that she actually has that good a vocabulary. Which helps a lot, in movies about teenagers. There are some hilarious moments, but my favourite was probably when Hal's guidance counsellor guy suggested Hal speak in an accent if he wanted to stutter less. OR when Hal decides to get drunk, and it doesn't go well at all. The narration was a little different than usual too. It wasn't Hal's voice whining about his life, it was a stranger talking as if he were telling a great story. "Rocket Science" doesn't try too hard to be all quirky-indie or anything. It's just got a great story and a great cast. One of the best movies of this kind I've seen in recent years. A really genuine teen movie.