Director: Jeffrey Blitz
Featuring:
Reece Daniel Thompson, Anna Kendrick, Vincent Piazza
A teenager
tackles the mysteries of life, love and public speaking in 'Rocket Science', a
wry comedy of adolescent angst by Jeffrey Blitz, director of the Academy Award-nominated
documentary 'Spellbound'.
Life is not easy for teenager Hal
Hefner (Reece Daniel Thompson: 'Bloodworth') of suburban Plainsboro, New Jersey.
His parents, Juliet (Lisbeth Bartlett) and Doyle (Denis O'Hare), have abruptly
split; his older brother, Earl (Vincent Piazza: 'The Sopranos') is a budding obsessive
compulsive who pushes him around; and he has an unpredictable stutter that makes
high school an exercise in embarrassment and self-effacement.
But
when the hyper-articulate Ginny Ryerson (Anna Kendrick: 'Up In the Air'), asks
Hal to join her debating team, his life changes in an instant. Trundling back
and forth to her house with his ever-growing pile of research, Hal starts to see
new possibilities in his life. Perhaps he can tame his stutter and become a master
of rhetoric. Perhaps he can succeed in love - where so many, including his parents,
have failed - and win Ginny's heart.
Mixing humour with a compassionate
regard for his characters and their idiosyncrasies, Blitz leaves behind the conventions
and clichés of coming-of-age tales to create a film about the little insights
that can emerge from, and ultimately eclipse, the agonies and disappointments
of youth.
'Rocket Science' is available now.
