Jeffrey Blitz is the filmmaker who made spelling bees gripping in the documentary, Spellbound, so just imagine what he could do with debating.

You can find out in Rocket Science, Blitz' feature narrative debut. Rocket Science is an unusual and comic coming-of-age comedy story about public speaking and a boy with a stutter.

That boy is Hal Hefner, whose adolescence in Plainsboro, New Jersey has just been made even worse by the fact that his parents are separating. Hal (Reece Thompson) is a nerd, his big brother is a bully and a thief and everything worrisome about Hal's life seems that much worse to him because he sometimes stutters. He can't make himself heard. He can't even order lunch properly at the school cafeteria, because he can't get the word "pizza" out of his mouth.

Out of the blue comes Ginny (Anna Kendrick), the star of his high school's debate team. Ginny is quick, smart, verbal and controlling and she decides that Hal should join the debate team. Why Hal?

Because, she explains, the handicapped have something to prove.

So Hal joins up. It's a bit of a disaster. He just can't overcome his speech disfluency. Then when Hal's mom and the Korean man who lives next door begin an affair, Hal and his brother are faced with the fact that their mom has a sex life. What can help Hal through these various life crises?

Falling in love with Ginny seems to help. Hal jumps into the debate team, researching and working with Ginny and finding a purpose in life. He continues to search for the one trick, the one technique, that will conquer his stutter. But the course of true love never did run smooth. Even in the face of failure and betrayal, Hal remains courageous and loving and he begins to see how life works.

Rocket Science is wise and funny and often surprising, a nice touch in moviedom, where predictable is considered a good thing. Even the music is terrific and likewise, somewhat unexpected.

Reece Thompson is almost too good as Hal, perfectly conveying the humiliation and confusion that teenage life has to offer. Everyone else in the cast is just as convincing.

The movie has heartbreak and it has humour, but what it doesn't have is any kind of fake triumph. There's just one nod to the future, one glimpse of a time when Hal has finally emerged into adult life, and that comes in a conversation Hal and his father have at the end of the movie. Hal promises to find a good way, a very good way, of letting his dad know how it all works out.

We're guessing Rocket Science is that good way.

(This film is rated PG)
More Movie Reviews