Review of Terri (2011) by Luke G — 06 Jul 2011

Terri tells the story of an overweight teenage outsider who befriends his high school principal and is helped to cope with adjusting to a normal everyday life. It's not a comedy, but definitely has its funny moments. It's not a full-fledged drama although there are plenty of tragic and deeply emotional scenes. It's not one of those lovable mentor takes the misfit under his wing and leads him to triumph stories that it would seem to be at first glance either. Terri is a an intelligently crafted, very human story, about an outcast from the outcast's perspective.

Terri (Jacob Wysocki) wakes up in the morning, tends to his Uncle James (The Office's Creed Bratton) who has dementia, and is off on his walk to school. The peculiar thing about Terri, is that he doesn't change clothes before he heads to school, he rocks his PJ's all day and night. This coupled with his weight problem makes him the target for ridicule of his class mates. So it lands him in the the principal, Mr. Fitzgerald's (John C. Reilly) office for regular counseling sessions. Terri is not crazy about Mr. Fitzgerald at first, but he warms up to his principals persistent and sometimes awkward cheesiness. Mr. Fitzgerald tells Terri he wants to meet with him once a week, and when Terri asks, "Why me?" he replies, "Because I think you are one of the good-hearted kids." Their friendship goes through some ups and downs, but there is something for them both in it. Mr. Fitzgerald gets to be fulfilled in the fact that he is making a difference but even though he is a little on the wacky side, he cares for Terri. Terri gets a friend out of the deal, and since he doesn't have many he's grateful to his principal. Terri has a crush on a popular classmate named Heather (Olivia Crocicchia). She has went through an embarrassing situation in class, so Terri befriends her because he understands what its like to be ridiculed. He becomes so chummy with her he even starts to trust her enough to invite her to his home and meet his uncle. In one of the final sequences Terri and Heather along with another ostercized classmate of theirs, Brad (Bridger Zadina), hang out in Terri's garage drinking liquor. As the teens start to get drunk, clothes are shed and Terri might even get lucky, but he feels like that might not be the best of situations to take his shot. He's believable as a truly good kid, and that makes it easy to pull for him.

Director Azazel Jacobs shows a real knack for outside-the-box storytelling. He's somebody I will expect to see more great films from in the near future. Not very often do we see formula breakers emerge like this. At face value Terri looks a movie we've seen before, but through Jacobs' keen eye, with a delightful script from Patrick DeWitt, and a handful of great performances from the young & fresh-faced cast, Terri is a unique film that I hope a lot of people get to see. Oh yeah - and it doesn't hurt to have John C. Reilly in your film either. A little Reilly goes a long way.