ROCKET SCIENCE
The Story:
Hal Hefner (Reece Thompson) is a smart and perceptive high-schooler -- but thanks to his bullying brother (Vincent Piazza) and a debilitating stutter, he's paralyzed by neuroses and panic attacks. His father recently left his mother. His mother then shacked up with a judge (Steve Park) with a horrifying sense of humor. And Hal gets terrible advice from everyone -- including a school counselor (Maury Ginsberg) with the barest understanding of speech pathology who advises Hal to "go back to where you were before you tried to exceed expectations."
But Hal's real journey into hell begins when he joins the Plainsboro High debate team because of a woman. Specifically, he joins the team because of Ginny Ryerson (Anna Kendrick), a master debater.
After a humiliating defeat at the previous year’s state championship, where her whiz partner, the slick-tongued Ben Wekselbaum (Nicholas D’Agosto), came to the realization as he was closing in on the title, that the whole thing was a pointless charade. Suddenly stopping mid-sentence, he effectively gave the trophy to the opposing school. Ginny becomes desperate to reclaim her superiority, and back on the bus convinces Hal of his potential when she says “deformed people” are always the best. “It must be their deep source of anger.”
Completely infatuated, Hal falls for Ginny and her rifling speech patterns. He looks up to her as nature’s perfect creation, and decides to make a move, but Ginny is seemingly not prepared to get so close, and in response leaves the team for a rival school.On top of this, Hal’s home life is shit. Lacking the support of a father (or mother) figure and being forced to fend for himself, he manages to survive on his own
Not willing to give in so easily, he goes in search of the legend. Wekselbaum, now living alone, is found working happily at a cleaners in the slums of Trenton, N.J., and it is here that Hal plans to stage a comeback to prove his worth—but to whom?
Starring:
Reece Daniel Thompson, Anna Kendrick, Nicholas DiAgosto, Vincent Piazza, Margo Martindale, Steve Park, Maury Ginsberg.
Reece Daniel Thompson, Anna Kendrick, Nicholas DiAgosto, Vincent Piazza, Margo Martindale, Steve Park, Maury Ginsberg.
Directed By:
Jeffrey Blitz
Release:
Release:
2007
Watch the Trailer:
Watch the Trailer:
