3 gibbles outta 5

Director – Spencer Susser

Ponderously paced, ‘Hesher; stops just short of annoying indie flick levels to come up with a respectably unique twist on a the “stranger enters our lives AND TOUCHES ALL OF OUR HEARTS MEANINGFULLY” style of film.  At moments I felt like I was watching a less scatalogical ‘Visitor Q’, but ‘Hesher’ doesn’t quite have enough guts to leave us totally offended and in the dark.  It aims to dip into real humanity and it does so… after a time.

You’d be forgiven for being confused as to what’s going to happen when based on the “Ain’t It Cool” “HILARIOUS” review thats slapped on the picture for this movie.  Hilarious.  Sure.  I did laugh at some points, but movies are pitched from the opening scene, and here we have kid Devin Brochu on his bike, chasing a car that’s being towed.  Brochu wipes out several times, pretty violently, but it’s not presented as slapstick comedy.  This kid’s getting messed up, and we can tell that it’s because there’s something messed up with him.  From there we go to our equally “gut-busting” introduction to other characters: distraught, pill-addicted father Rainn Wilson and shoe-in for wise-grandma role Piper Laurie.  Dark comedy, you say?  Yes, it is, sure, but again… after a time.

The movie is about Devin and Rainn coping with the loss of Rainn’s wife and Devin’s mother.  The ‘how’ and the extent of the effect come along at their own pace in the movie.  It takes the enigmatic ‘Hesher’ – a seeming vagrant who moves into Devin and Rainn’s grandmother’s house (where they have been staying since some time after the death) – to shock them out of their reverie on their way to recovery.

‘Hesher’ – JG-Levitt – is crude and brash and mean and dirty and tattooed.  You don’t exactly like him, because he dumps his fair amount of shit on the characters, but his near-insanity and seeming cluelessness make him accessible, as does Levitt’s portrayal of the character.  I’ll credit director Susser (and the script) with capturing the character’s behavior the way he wanted: Hesher remains watchable and tolerable by not magically turning into a purposeful sage.  His words float in and out of sense, and for every scene where you think he’s teaching Devin a lesson on growing up, there’s a scene where he runs him over with a car, or the smirk he gets when watching another kid beat Devin up.  Speaking of whom – Devin Brochu was phenomenal in the film.  He carries a pretty heavy role without breaking, and properly portrays the right amount of understanding and aloofness that a kid his age should have.

But it’s a pretty bleak film.  Some of Hesher’s (the character’s) moments are hilarious, but not directly because of his crassness, rather his odd presence juxtaposed with this sad family.  And would we appreciate his effect if Susser didn’t take the time to plod through the opening hour of instilling us with this sadness?  I don’t know.  The scenes are well-captured and, as mentioned, some great performances were coaxed out for these roles, but the attempt at combining extreme emotions ends up working like a indie-fied Jud Apatow thang, the crude adult dramady, which tend to be relate-able, mostly interesting, but rarely affecting.

Natalie Portman plays a girl in the movie.