Review of Terri (2011) by Niklas S — 17 Sep 2011

âTerriâ?tells a simple and relatable story without adherence to clichà (C), and tells it so well that we canâ(TM)t help but become involved. It centers on 15 year-old Terri, played with quiet sensitivity by Jacob Wysocki, an overweight boy for whom simply going to school has become a painful ordeal. He is teased relentlessly by his classmates. His weight is the subject of their insults, but perhaps not the sole cause. Terriâ(TM)s strange behaviors â" which include wearing pajamas to school and baiting logs with dead mice in order to observe the birds consuming them â" suggest deeper pains and fundamental loneliness. His home life is no relief. Terri lives with and cares for his Uncle James (Creed Bratton), who is growing ever more senile and now seems almost like a wandering ghost, haunting his own house.

Without any real human connections, Terri loses interest in school, and his poor performance brings him to the attention of Mr. Fitzgerald (John C. Reilly), an assistant principal who sees something of himself in the boy and decides to help him. They meet once a week to discuss Terriâ(TM)s life and feelings. Although a story about the growing bond between a troubled youth and an understanding teacher sounds ominously formulaic, director Azazel Jacobs never allows clichà (C) to dominate the film. This is partly because the scenes of their interaction are so well-written, and partly because the actors play them with such wonderful skill. Reilly, a terrific actor too often confined to comedy, is at the top of his game here, playing Fitzgerald as a man who has achieved a certain contentment with lifeâ(TM)s disappointments, and who wishes to help his students do the same. He is far from infallible. He is frustrated when he feels powerless to help his students, and is not above using deceit in order to get through to them. He assaults Terri with high-fives and âdudesâ? in an effort to connect with him, but these attempts often feel strained; their entire relationship has the ring of truth.

And it is not the sole focus of Terriâ(TM)s story. One of the pleasures of this film is the way that seemingly incidental figures in Terriâ(TM)s life bloom unexpectedly into full-bodied characters. They enter into the tale organically and gradually, not as a contrivance of plot requirements. They are Chad (Bridger Zadina), a hyperactive and repellant delinquent who has also been taken under Fitzgeraldâ(TM)s wing, and Heather (Olivia Crocicchia), a pretty student who becomes a class pariah after she allows another boy to take liberties with her during Home Economics. Moved by sympathy and attraction, Terri speaks up for her and prevents her expulsion from school. They soon form an unlikely bond.Terriâ(TM)s friendship with Chad, who is filled with aggression but has none of Terriâ(TM)s sensitivity, is a bit more difficult to account for; it seems that neither of them has anybody else to be friends with.

The only thing these three young people have in common is that they are social outcasts. Given this setup, we might expect this to become a story of misfits finding strength in one another. But the filmâ(TM)s outlook is not nearly as facile or sentimental as that. âLifeâ(TM)s a mess,â? Fitzgerald tells Terri in one of the filmâ(TM)s finest scenes, and the three youngsters discover this for themselves in the extraordinary climax of the film. Itâ(TM)s an unusual climax, because itâ(TM)s the slowest and quietest scene in the movie: an uncomfortable evening spent in a tool shed, rendered lethargic and slightly surreal by the use of alcohol and Uncle Jamesâ(TM) pills, during which each of the three characters suffers moments of acute embarrassment and self-recognition. Itâ(TM)s an ugly, aching evocation of the pains of adolescence, and it transports the film to another level. Itâ(TM)s the sort of scene that continues to haunt you long after the credits begin to roll.

Despite this, the picture ends on a note of optimism. When we leave Terri, he is still large, still lonely, still in the process of discovering himself, but happier than he was when we met him. This is a coming-of-age story, yes, but one about survival, not triumph. Because its characters are so well-drawn, because it is rarely predictable and never trite, and because it deals honestly with the confusion and frustration of growing up, the film engages on a much deeper emotional level than nearly any other movie so far this year.