Hesher Review

*Promotional Poster for the movie Hesher*

When the news breaks that an indie film starring Joseph Gordon -Levitt and Natalie Portman is announced, and Gordon-Levitt just happens to also be playing an antisocial metalhead, nothing much should keep you from being interested at the least. Then the reality of the film hits you, when it's turn out the story in fact about a family, primarily a less than fortunate kid, whose deceased mother leaves all involved helpless at the notion of life having meaning beyond her passing. This makes it all the more difficult to stomach the message and dark nature of the film, and what exactly it is that anyone is suppose to take from it by the end.

WARNING: This review may contain some spoilers, as they may be essential to giving a good review on this film.

Let's just get this out of the way right now, the soundtrack has some Metallica in it, and anything with Metallica in it is

should be awesome enough right? Nope, Metallica is about the only think aside from Gordon-Levitt's performance in this

film that keeps it from being any more boring and contrived. The story manly revolves around T.J,  a kid whose mother has recently passed on. His life becomes a pit of depression for both him and his father as they cope with having a life without her. Now in all seriousness, given the way the film acts towards both these characters  it doesn't make it seem like they had much outside of her love to hold onto in the film before her departure.  So one can understand why their grieving could be so immense, as can the loss of any loved one be, but this movie makes it seem almost like the characters themselves have died in exchange, and somehow the only person who can help them come back to life is a totally devoid of emotion and care himself squatter and total delinquent Hesher, played by Gordon-Levitt.

In terms of a character, Hesher is perhaps the most enjoyable component of this film if not merely for his juxtaposition  He imposes on T.J and his father, he messes up T.J friendship with Natalie Portman, he burns, he destroys, and he saves the day, all at the expense of not T.J, or his father, but in fact T.J's grandmother Madeleine, for whom is probably the only charatcer he has any real respect for him the film. Madeleine seems the one most inherent of problems in the film, in which she has taken on both the greif of T.J's mother passing, and the grief of both him and his father, played by Reinn Wilson. She also manages to be the only one who takes a liking somewhat to Hesher's squatting at their place. This is made all the more difficult by her apparent ignorance to his nature, and causes any affection thrown towards Hesher's film seem like a decision that could only be made from a negative or compromised place; therefore damaging any of the few redeemable traits he has. It's almost like the film enjoys shooting itself in the foot any chance it gets. It keeps reminding you that Hesher is not suppose to be a good person, yet by the films end you are suppose to believe that without him, everyone involved would be worse off, or not learn to appreciate what they have, when in reality, it just makes what is already clearly very grim, only seem plan grim, and still some pretty horrible cards to be dealt.

Natalie Portman's character shows the beginning of her affection towards characters that are both inherently complicated and weak, making poor decisions in exchange for relevance. Sometimes an indie film is good when it makes a character like Nicole (the one she plays) lost in a more artistic and consequential world, but in this world, she just seems like an afterthought and a persona better left out after any rough draft. Not to mention, anyone who would hook up with a man like Hesher is just asking to be confused and have low self-esteem, which is central to the overall themes of this film: depression, loss of hope, etc. These aren't always things that are translated well on screen, and Hesher manages to be a film that reminds us of what its like to witness something sad that isn't entertaining or at least interesting in all it tries to convey.

There is an ugly truth to just about everything the film tries to do, from letting a young actor take the lead, to making an inherently bad person out to be a savior, it's message is lost through trying to do too much where it needed to cut back, and doing too little with what it did best. Hesher is about the best the movie get's as mentioned before, yet he is perhaps the only character that doesn't see some kind of lesson learned, or life revelation occur. Towards the end when he crashes Madeleine's funeral, his speech is both obscene, shocking, and face palm worthy for it just seeming in such bad taste, that it's saddening that it's the film's most memorable sequence. It was very hard to feel any sympathy for anyone but Madeleine in this film and it's almost worth questioning if the movie was made to be enjoyed or as a wake up call to how some people's trauma can only be saved by the most unexpected of life changing occurrences  It's a very old story dressed up as a very contemporary labor of love that doesn't hit it's mark more than it misses.

Hesher is not a bad movie, it's just not a good movie. It's sad, it's not really that well done, or at least made interestingly enough to keep it's sadness from destroying any desire to watch it again. It suffers from what no movie wants to suffer from, and that's a boring middle ground where everything that happens can only resonate with such a select group of people that it fades into obscurity; and in turn becomes cool because it's 'that' film. Now I like a quality indie film just as much as the next person, but this happens sometimes, not every movie that takes a shot at being ugly, realistic, mundane, and complex can end up being a work of art worth remembering. The acting isn't the problem, neither is the story, it's just the film itself and all the pieces involved as they attempt to merge together.

Check out the trailer for Hesher at the link below!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXKRKpvv3SU

Review Score Card:

Stoyline:           Not very interesting; Sympathy feels very forced on audience.

Characters:       Hard to feel sorry for, not as deep as the film would like them to be.

Pacing:             Not bad, but also not really a factor since the movie is too boring at times to

                        judge correctly.

Interest Level:    Should be much better given the films promise, but very dark, ugly, and too 

                        reliant on Joseph Gordon Levitt to stand remembering for any other reason.

Overall:            5 out of 10 - An average, yet boring movie that's hard to recommend to

                        anyone.