Thumbsucker — movie review

by Kris   ⋅   September 10, 2006   ⋅   Comment now   ⋅    RSS

“It’s an understandable habit… what’s strange is that people ever quit.” Words of wisdom from shamen/orthodontist Perry (Keanu Reeves) right before he hypnotizes Justin Cobb (Lou Pucci), a 17-year-old chronic thumb abuser. “From now on, your thumb will taste like echinachea”, and it does. It “cures” Justin of his affliction, but not the addiction. He goes from one impulsion to the next, riding the temporary high of newfound experimentation.

On the surface, Justin is like any normal nonconformist niche kid, searching for acceptance and answers, yet is unsure how and who to ask. He realizes he has to outgrow his fantasies, so he can’t ask his mom (Tilda Swinton), whose empty role as housewife and RN and ever-giving altruist, leads her to an imaginary romance with a TV star. His father (Vincent D’Onofrio) a destined pro-football player, resigned to manage a sports supply franchise and become a silent (thereby seemingly unsupportive) father instead. Mr. Cobb makes Justin call him and his mother by their first names because it makes him feel old, and it makes him see Justin as a kid.

Clearly, our antihero is experiencing the horrors of being a high schooler. It’s kids stuff, really, or is it adult stuff? At that age, it’s easy to be confused. The pressure of facing adult responsibilities while still being restricted to rules inflicted on children by adults. Facing the pressure of being released into a realm most people aren’t ready for or are too eager to access. With this in mind, as disturbing as a teenage thumbsucker is, we can sympathize his regression. With all the psychological degradations out there, at least we can be thankful this tale isn’t entitled “bedwetter”.

So maybe he could find the answer with his peers. He befriends a girl with environmentalist ideals, Rebecca (Kelli Gardner), spouting Sierra Club statistics to get into her pants. But she is searching for her own answers, and soon leaves Justin and the nerdy track to become a hardcore stoner. Meanwhile, Justin is diagnosed with ADHD and gets on the Ritalin. For a brief shining moment, he’s “cured” yet again. He becomes heavily involved in the debate team, confusing blind charisma for confidence under the presumptuous realism of a harsh debate coach Mr. Geary (Vince Vaughn) bent on simultaneously starring and squelching Justin’s success. “Humans are inherently hostile”, Justin shoots down yet another debate opponent shortly before Mr. Geary tells him he’s become a monster. When an egoist warns you about being glib, you know you’ve gone too far. Justin is only guilty of being too smart for his own good and too naive to know what to do about it.

So Justin goes from Ritalin (basically legal speed) to pot, back again with the beloved Rebecca. But he needs to realize that she is just experimenting too, leaving him a jilted guinea pig. So just like life speeding and slowing, ebbing and flowing, Justin finds himself caught in inner conflict again. Why leave when it’s so easy to rely on escapism? The ultimate escapism would be to, well, escape. In the lushest evergreen backdrop and affinity to timberwolves that could only belong to Oregon, Justin dreams of NYC. He craves fame in some sense, basking in some prospective success in broadcast journalism, liberating news for the masses. Ironic as he is unable to find his own freedom. Perhaps he also craves the anonymity of a big city, a place where he could get lost. A place devoid of conflicts, at least in his mind.

But in Thumbsucker, the conflicts do not cease at context, and rather happily coexist. The soundtrack includes snippets from both Elliot Smith and the Polyphonic Spree, screaming polar opposites. Another highlight of brave proportions was Benjamin Bratt’s performance as the TV star whom Justin’s mother is enamored with. The epic scene where he mentions a spoon and patchouli are priceless. On the opposite end of the laugh meter, Perry’s narrow hippie vision intends channelled paths but doesn’t allow much room for failure. In efforts to embrace “himself”, he loses his character and verve and everything that made him him. Another wonderful contradiction is the intimacy displayed by Justin’s family, hugging and cuddling a lot. Like most families, they are separated emotionally, brought together by conflict.

What’s refreshing is that Thumbsucker is not a story about adults that are completely detached and clueless, you can actually see the progression of loss and how little triumphs/failures spurn their memories into fresh trophies/wounds. Unlike most teen movies, you can imagine them as kids and teens. These are adults who do not have all the answers, but are just as lost or so disappointed with their lives that they impart a little jealousy and scorn at those who have so much potential; basically the kids who haven’t ruined their lives yet. The main goal I’m sure will come across as sort of diluted Disney in b/w: it’s healthy to have fantasies, to have dreams. Accepting yourself is the “cure”. In Justin’s discussion of Moby Dick, “[w]hiteness stands for eternity. The blankness of uninterrupted time. It represents both Innocence and Extinction. The beginning and the end.” Sounds like being a teenager, doesn’t it?

About the Author

Kris Kobayashi-Nelson says these directors/screenwriters rarely disappoint: Peter Greenaway, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Gus van Sant. Gregg Araki. Kris claims that Jake Gyllenhaal, Cillian Murphy, Desmond Harrington and Casey Affleck are much more than pretty faces.

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