DVD Reviews

Thumbsucker

• Rating:
• Director:
• Starring: Lou Taylor Pucci
• Details: USA, 96 mins, 16.

Teenager Justin (Pucci) still sucks his thumb as a way of coping with life; he has a father who won't accept the role of parent, freezes up in the debate-team, under achieves generally and is dumped by his girlfriend for not being open. However, after a hypnotherapy session from his hippy dentist (Reeves) he's free from the tyranny of this thumb. The trouble is he misses it. Meanwhile his teachers diagnose him as having Attention Deficit Disorder and Justin willingly goes on medication to sharpen his mind. This turns him into an over-rational, premature adult, with a tendency to pill pop. Until he suspects his mother of having an affair…
The casting here is inspired; Reeves has definitely become a more seasoned actor and increasingly applies his stoical strengths to the right projects; Pucci is superb in his first lead-feature as the moody teen in an adjustment period; while Tilda Swinton is luminous as the loving mother coming to terms with her changing family. Oh yes, and Vince Vaughn dons some specs and a tank top and becomes: The Debate Teacher (clearly a method actor). Basically, Thumbsucker is a wonderfully rounded piece of American Art-Indie filmmaking about learning to accept ourselves and living with the unanswerable.

Review by Elaine Reilly