I was loaned a DVD of Rocket Science and had neither read or heard anything about it so there was no prejudice at all and, to be honest, after sitting through all 114 minutes of it, I was left wondering what was the point of it all.
The opening and early part of the movie is OK (if you like that sort of thing) and we are introduced to Hal Hefner (Reece Thompson), a lad with a severe speech impediment. Hal's home is very dysfunctional with his father leaving his mother and one suspects that this is possibly contributory to his speech impediment. Additionally, as is, sadly, typical of such situations, there are those heartless immature individuals at Hal's school who seem to delight in belittling him and, to his credit, he takes most of it in his stride. Particularly distasteful is Hal's treatment by his brother Earl who one would have expected to be supportive of his kid brother. Sometimes Earl actually is supportive but, most of the time, he delights in bullying Hal.
The whole movie is centered around the New Jersey State High School Debating Championships which, I guess, tends to feature what many viewers might call "geeks" or "Nerds" - those students who are in the upper intellectual echelons. This is where Hal sort of fits into the plot because, whilst he has extreme difficulty expressing himself verbally, he DOES have a brain - so to speak. OK, so far, so good. After far too long, I was beginning to wonder where the movie was going until Ginny Ryerson (Anna Kendrick) and Hal's paths cross. Ginny is decidedly angry because her highly accomplished debating partner, Ben Wekselbaum (very well portrayed by Nicholas D'Agosto) "lost it" in the grand final of the debating contest costing Ginny the only trophy she had never won.
In some sort of weird spin, Ginny asks Hal to be her partner for the next championship which, on the face of it, seemed totally ridiculous given Hal's unsuitability. But then, because it WAS a fictional story, my mind immediately imagined that Ginny was going to perform some sort of miracle (which, I also imagined, would involve some romantic involvement between the two of them - you know, love conquers everything) that resulted in Hal overcoming his disability and, with his help, Ginny achieving her final debating goal at last. Kinda made sense really (to Me anyway!). Although I couldn't help wondering why Hal even considered the invitation knowing his own limitations - maybe, like me, he expected love to work a miracle!
Well, the romantic bit happened (which, as I say, was hardly surprising given the circumstances) but the miracle didn't. In fact, the whole story came down in a heap when Ginny suddenly changes sides and goes to the school that had defeated her in the last debating championship and even teams up with one of the team that beat her! Hal, by now madly in love with Ginny, is understandably left bewildered and devastated. But little Hal isn't a quitter! There was even a brief moment in the film where Hal is running and, the way it is portrayed, I suddenly thought that he was going to discover that he had the speed to become a champion athlete and show Ginny that loquacity isn't everything in becoming successful. But that was just a brief hope and nothing came of it.
He seeks out Ben (whose 'aberration' had caused him to quit school and work at a dry cleaners) and asks him to join him as a home-school debating team. remembering Hal from school, Ben is not so keen though. But Hal's persuasive abilities are brought into force and, using some techniques suggested by Hal's speech therapist, the team sets about preparing at the last minute to enter the champs with Hal singing his words - which he does a lot better than speaking them, but still not flawlessly.
By now (at least 100 minutes into the story) I'm becoming increasing frustrated by Hal's lack of loquacity to the point where I was almost ready to stop the disc. But then I also wanted to see how the expected miracle would manifest itself and so I hung in as the debating finals begin. Then in walks the chief judge and tells Ben and Hal that they are disqualified because neither of them is being home-schooled! There were some other events (such as Hal stealing another trophy that was to be presented to Ginny) but, in the end, Hal is still stuttering and Ginny goes her selfish way. And that was that! What really worries me though is that I feel as though I have missed the whole point. Perhaps I just don't like lousy endings where the loser becomes a winner and true love wins out. This just wasn't my sort of film. I wonder who'sea it was though!
The opening and early part of the movie is OK (if you like that sort of thing) and we are introduced to Hal Hefner (Reece Thompson), a lad with a severe speech impediment. Hal's home is very dysfunctional with his father leaving his mother and one suspects that this is possibly contributory to his speech impediment. Additionally, as is, sadly, typical of such situations, there are those heartless immature individuals at Hal's school who seem to delight in belittling him and, to his credit, he takes most of it in his stride. Particularly distasteful is Hal's treatment by his brother Earl who one would have expected to be supportive of his kid brother. Sometimes Earl actually is supportive but, most of the time, he delights in bullying Hal.
The whole movie is centered around the New Jersey State High School Debating Championships which, I guess, tends to feature what many viewers might call "geeks" or "Nerds" - those students who are in the upper intellectual echelons. This is where Hal sort of fits into the plot because, whilst he has extreme difficulty expressing himself verbally, he DOES have a brain - so to speak. OK, so far, so good. After far too long, I was beginning to wonder where the movie was going until Ginny Ryerson (Anna Kendrick) and Hal's paths cross. Ginny is decidedly angry because her highly accomplished debating partner, Ben Wekselbaum (very well portrayed by Nicholas D'Agosto) "lost it" in the grand final of the debating contest costing Ginny the only trophy she had never won.
In some sort of weird spin, Ginny asks Hal to be her partner for the next championship which, on the face of it, seemed totally ridiculous given Hal's unsuitability. But then, because it WAS a fictional story, my mind immediately imagined that Ginny was going to perform some sort of miracle (which, I also imagined, would involve some romantic involvement between the two of them - you know, love conquers everything) that resulted in Hal overcoming his disability and, with his help, Ginny achieving her final debating goal at last. Kinda made sense really (to Me anyway!). Although I couldn't help wondering why Hal even considered the invitation knowing his own limitations - maybe, like me, he expected love to work a miracle!
Well, the romantic bit happened (which, as I say, was hardly surprising given the circumstances) but the miracle didn't. In fact, the whole story came down in a heap when Ginny suddenly changes sides and goes to the school that had defeated her in the last debating championship and even teams up with one of the team that beat her! Hal, by now madly in love with Ginny, is understandably left bewildered and devastated. But little Hal isn't a quitter! There was even a brief moment in the film where Hal is running and, the way it is portrayed, I suddenly thought that he was going to discover that he had the speed to become a champion athlete and show Ginny that loquacity isn't everything in becoming successful. But that was just a brief hope and nothing came of it.
He seeks out Ben (whose 'aberration' had caused him to quit school and work at a dry cleaners) and asks him to join him as a home-school debating team. remembering Hal from school, Ben is not so keen though. But Hal's persuasive abilities are brought into force and, using some techniques suggested by Hal's speech therapist, the team sets about preparing at the last minute to enter the champs with Hal singing his words - which he does a lot better than speaking them, but still not flawlessly.
By now (at least 100 minutes into the story) I'm becoming increasing frustrated by Hal's lack of loquacity to the point where I was almost ready to stop the disc. But then I also wanted to see how the expected miracle would manifest itself and so I hung in as the debating finals begin. Then in walks the chief judge and tells Ben and Hal that they are disqualified because neither of them is being home-schooled! There were some other events (such as Hal stealing another trophy that was to be presented to Ginny) but, in the end, Hal is still stuttering and Ginny goes her selfish way. And that was that! What really worries me though is that I feel as though I have missed the whole point. Perhaps I just don't like lousy endings where the loser becomes a winner and true love wins out. This just wasn't my sort of film. I wonder who'sea it was though!