Thumbsucker Movie Review:


Adults don’t seem to be much help to Justin, who at 17 is diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder and put on pills that are ‘three molecules away from cocaine.’ This is to help improve his schoolwork, and it works; so much, indeed, that he hardly notices that an old sort-of-girlfriend, previously a Green Peace activist, has become a stoner. The pills also stop him sucking his thumb, which drives his parents nuts.

Mike Mills’s movie “Thumbsucker” is like a breath of fresh air, showing a teenager who really is depressed (a lot of teenagers simply affect depression as a fashion choice), and it is haunting, touching, and often very funny. If it seems at times a little unfocussed in tone, this further adds to the lack of focus in Justin’s life. Although it’s a comedy, it’s not always a fun movie to watch, often expressing an uneasy truthfulness.

Justin is played by Lou Pucci, and it is every bit the equal to Jason Schwartzman’s performance in “Rushmore,” Jake Gyllenhaal’s in “Donnie Darko” and Kieran Culkin’s in “Igby Goes Down”; the characters in these movies all being in some way linked in personality to Pucci’s role. He plays a character with a weird personality, and is wise enough to know that this is not the same thing as playing a weird character.

Like most teens in movies, he is not very popular (with the exception of Ferris Bueller, movie teenagers are invariably underdogs). His relationship with Rebecca (Kelli Garner), the Green Peace/stoner girl, is his first, and it’s an on-off one that he takes more seriously than she does. He is sad and under-confident as the movie opens, but he slowly learns how to be himself without feeling the pressure of fulfilling people’s expectations. ‘I feel like me,’ he says at one point. ‘I never really have before.’

Pucci’s is one of many wonderful performances in the movie. His parents are played by Tilda Swinton and Vincent D’Onofrio, who are both convincing in their roles as people who love their children, but aren’t always sure of what is best for them, and in their own way are as insecure as Justin. The communication between family members seems damaged, and Justin gets infuriated with parents for not always being honest with him (or, he suspects, each other). His parents seem perhaps stereotypes at first; a sporty dad who goes ape when he spots his son sucking his thumb, and a quiet, seemingly unhappy mother. These characters, though, are developed into sympathetic people in their own right, as we learn of their pasts and slowly change our minds about them. Even Joel, Justin’s little brother, a minor character, has a great moment when he stands up to Justin and tells him he’s not the only one with problems. ‘Didn’t it occur to you that because you’re so weird, I had to step up and be normal?’ he asks.

There are two other excellent reasons to see this movie: Vince Vaughn and Keanu Reeves, who play two of the funniest supporting roles in recent memory. Vaughn is Mr. Geary, Justin’s teacher, who doesn’t have much time for Justin until he makes it onto the ‘debate team’ after he starts taking the pills. In some of his little quirks, such as telling the girls to come into the boy’s toilet for a pre-debate pep-talk, we sense he is a man with issues. Reeves plays Dr. Lyman, Justin’s dentist, whose methods rarely have anything to do with fillings or polishes. He makes the right decision by playing this eccentric in a completely deadpan way; he seems to be sending up his own persona a little, and ends up getting laughs just from looks, or single words.

“Thumbsucker” is Mike Mills’s debut movie as a director; in the past, he has directed music videos. He is a confident and talented director, even if he resorts to a few slow-motion montages of Justin’s life. When you’ve seen one slow-motion life montage, you’ve seen them all. But it’s a movie with much more intelligence than the average movie about teens (including, I would argue, “Donnie Darko”), and it’s not just about Justin anyway. An entire movie could be made about his parents, or indeed his dentist. Not many actors would be able to pull of what Reeves does with the role; he brings the sincerity of Neo into the role of a wacko, and it’s an inspired performance in a movie where the peripheral characters are as complete and alive as the title one.

Adam Whyte

There's nothing particularly original about this indie-style coming-of-age drama (see also Igby Goes Down, Tadpole, The Rage in Placid Lake, and so on), but it's an impressive debut for Mills, who knows exactly what to do with his extremely strong cast.

Justin (Pucci) is a 17-year-old who has never stopped sucking his thumb, despite the best efforts of his loving, worldly wise parents (Swinton and D'Onofrio), his orthodontist (Reeves) and his debate teacher (Vaughn). Maybe there's something going on here? Perhaps Justin just needs medication to help him cope with either depression or attention-deficit disorder. Or the problem might be that he's smarter than everyone around him. Or that he just needs to let himself grow up.

At the centre of this film, Pucci gives such a strongly compelling performance that we experience everything right along with him. We don't always like what he does or says, or how he treats the people around him, or the way he's so relentlessly self-obsessive. But we understand him--he's a teenager after all. And Pucci is a terrific young actor who beautifully balances the comedy and drama without appearing to try at all. Swinton and D'Onofrio are constantly surprising as his bewildered parents; Garner is very good as the unattainable object of Justin's affections; and Reeves and Vaughn provide solid, sometimes scene-stealing support.

Mills gives the entire film a kind of Zen/existential tone that echoes Justin's upbringing, combined with a subtle stab of smart humour that keeps the film fresh and engaging. Some of this is hilariously funny, such as Reeves' hypnosis scenes. Other aspects are more sharply telling, such as Garner's cruel experimentation. And in the end, the concluding messages aren't terribly original. Yes, we're all--regardless of our age--scared little animals addicted to an idea of the life we imagine ourselves living. Yes, the trick in life is learning to live without an answer. There's an awful lot of, to quote Reeves, "hippy psychobabble" in here. But even as it meanders toward the conclusion, it's also the kind of film that can, surprisingly, make you fall in love with your parents.

Rich Cline

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