A brooding young man must come to terms with his own shortcomings while yearning for his parents’ love and acceptance with a not-so-subtle jab against the overmedication of American youth. Sound familiar? Yeah, Zach Braff made it last summer. But this year’s edition of teen/twenty-something angst is just as biting a commentary as 2004’s New Jersey ode. Thumbsucker is Garden State: High School Edition with the same humor and emotional realism and a slightly creepier, yet equally excellent soundtrack.
The product of former football player should’ve-gone-pro dad Mike (Vincent D’Onofrio) and mild-mannered nurse mom Audrey (Tilda Swinton), Justin Cobb (Lou Pucci) is 17, apathetic and still sucking his thumb. The elder Cobbs, stuck in a stunted mid-life crisis denial phase, can’t help Justin drop his habit, forcing the high school senior to turn to various experiments with a hippie orthodontist, debate team, drugs and sex.
Adapted from the novel of the same name and directed by former commercial director Mike Mills (Sony Ericcson’s multi-language “Close to You” cinema advert, Gap’s West Side Story ads), Thumbsucker manages to emote without getting all Notebook-y, and humor without getting too absurd.
As the maladjusted Justin, newcomer Pucci, who won prizes for his performance at the Sundance and Berlin film festivals, proves to be more than just an orthodontist-approved smile and dreamy long hair. Keanu Reeves does his best Keanu Reeves impersonation as the wacky orthodontist and Benjamin Bratt gets creepy points as Audrey’s fallen-from-grace TV star crush. The film’s other strong performances come from Vince Vaughn as Justin’s debate coach/extra father figure, D’Onofrio and Swinton as Justin’s parents and Kelli Garner as Justin’s identity-shifting crush.
Despite the prevalence of power animals and pot, the real issue Thumbsucker addresses is why Justin still sucks his thumb after 17 years. In order for Justin to figure out what his real problems are, he needs to sift through the solutions everyone else offers. The film offers a definitive solution, but the message is more about self-acceptance than oral fixations – as director Mike Mills puts it, “We’re all f’d-up. It’s okay to be unresolved and unsure. We just have to deal with our messed-upness.”
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