Format: DVD Color: Color Rating: R RatingReason: some sexual content and language Genre: Comedy Year: 2007 Release Date: 2008-01-29 Director: Jeffrey Blitz
Picturehouse and HBO Films present a story about Hal Hefner, an ordinary, shy 15 year-old boy who's struggling to make it through High School. On top of his parents' recent divorce and an obsessive- compulsive, kleptomaniac older brother, Hal has a stuttering problem. In spite of this speech impediment, the high school debate team star, Ginny Ryerson, invites Hal to join the team. Stumbling his wa Picturehouse and HBO Films present a story about Hal Hefner, an ordinary, shy 15 year-old boy who's struggling to make it through High School. On top of his parents' recent divorce and an obsessive- compulsive, kleptomaniac older brother, Hal has a stuttering problem. In spite of this speech impediment, the high school debate team star, Ginny Ryerson, invites Hal to join the team. Stumbling his way to the championship, Hal falls in love, gains confidence and ultimately, realizes that love and life should not be rocket science.DVD Features:FeaturetteMusic Video The first fiction film from Jeffrey Blitz has nothing to do with aeronautical engineering and everything to do with finding your voice. For 15-year-old New Jersey-based Hal Hefner (Reece Thompson), that’s a tall order. He’s bright, but he stutters. To complicate matters, his parents are on the outs and his brother, Earl (the droll Vincent Piazza), is a bully. Just when he needs a guardian angel most, one materializes in his midst. Self-possessed schoolmate Ginny (Camp's Anna Kendrick) sees something in Hal no one else does. She's convinced he'll make a terrific debate team partner, so she recruits him. Unaccustomed to female attention, he opts to give it a try. Turns out, there's more to Ginny than meets the eye, but there's also more to Hal. When she double-crosses the lovelorn lad, he finds a brilliant way to get her back. It isn't about revenge, but self-respect. In Blitz's Oscar-nominated documentary Spellbound, the action revolves around the National Spelling Bee, but the director demonstrates greater interest in his subjects than the outcome of the contest. With its absurdist tone, Rocket Science may look different, but follows a similar trajectory. Unlike The Karate Kid and other teen favorites where an outcast triumphs over adversity and gets the girl, things aren't so simple in this case. As with its hero, Rocket Science can be awkward--there are too many subplots--but the throwaway gags, most involving Hal's buddy, Lewis (Josh Kay), are priceless, and Eef Barzelay's ukelele-based score is a nice touch. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
I hope old Hollywood and what's become the new Hollywood, namely the Sundance Film Festival, haven't yet established that the angst of suburban high school life really is a metaphor for all those life lessons they want to share with us. Rocket Science is one more in a long line of sensitive and not-so-sensitive teen-age movies. Surprisingly, this one is pretty good. On the other hand, if you're not prepared early on to recognize low-key exaggeration to achieve humor and make a point ("Wait a minute, why did..
The word "pathetic" may be defined as "causing or evoking pity, sympathetic sadness, and sorrow." This would be an accurate depiction of fifteen-year-old Hal Hefner's life. He is a short, homely, and socially inept teen; he stutters so badly that he cannot even ask for the food he wants in the school cafeteria; his parents break up after a bitter fight; his older brother is a petty thief and bully who threatens him constantly; his mother takes up with a Korean judge who has a braying laugh and gropes Mom i..
For some, the joys of being a teenager include excelling at sports, having a girlfriend or boyfriend, being part of a close circle of friends, or just having fun. For others, there is only the constant feeling of being an outsider looking in. For some, even the thought of getting out of bed in the morning to go to school is filled with dread. Case in point - Hal Hefner, a fifteen year old attending Plainsboro High School in New Jersey, who is trying to make sense of growing up but is burdened by a stutter s..
