Justin cobb still sucks his thumb at 17. He believes that if he could just stop he would finally be happy & normal. The only thing that makes him quit is hypnosis administered by his orthodontist. But without his thumb justin feels more alienated than before & his real problems have just begun. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 06/24/2008 Starring: Lou Taylor Pucci Vincent Donofrio Run time: 96 minutes Rating: R
A sterling cast--including Vince Vaughn, Keanu Reeves, Vincent D'Onofrio, and especially Tilda Swinton--lifts this coming-of-age story above the norm. Justin (Lou Pucci, Personal Velocity) is 17, yet he still sucks his thumb. Depressed, he frets that his parents (D'Onofrio, Full Metal Jacket, and Swinton, Orlando) are going to split up, that he has no focus in life, and that the girl he longs for can never love him--until his orthodontist (Reeves, The Matrix) hypnotizes Justin into quitting his thumbsucking, and a questionable diagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder results in medication that launches him into a wave of over-achievement. The script, though it has some clever flourishes, never lifts beyond typical adolescent turmoil, but thanks to wonderfully vivid and multi-layered performances (including Vaughn, Wedding Crashers, as a debate teacher with hair issues), the movie never flags. Swinton also executive-produced the movie; she clearly saw in this suburban mother a character she could invest with as much emotion and intensity as the angel Gabriel (Constantine) or the White Witch of Narnia (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe). It's rich, intricate acting, never showy, yet mesmerizing. Thumbsucker also features Benjamin Bratt (Pinero) and Kelli Garner (Man of the House). --Bret Fetzer
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 3.5 / 5.0
3 stars out of 4:
The Bottom Line: Ignored upon its release (and hardly thought of subsequently), Thumbsucker is an enjoyable coming-of-age story/comedy that features a perfectly cast Keanu Reeves (words I never thought I would write) and an appealingly different Vince Vaughn; it's worth seeking out.
What's your power animal?:
I HEART BROKEN that Thumbsucker kind of dissipated like a diaphanous mist at the end instead of tying the ribbons into a perfect bow, but there is so much good stuff going on that maybe I HEART BROKEN that it had to end at all. First, let me say that new comer Lou Taylor Pucci as Thumbsucker Justin Cobb really carried the film with a subtle, nuanced performance, resisting the urge to overact. There was quite a connection with his mother, Audrey Cobb (Tilda Swinton). I'll get to that later, but there... more info
"You are not alone. You are not afraid. You don't need your thumb, and your thumb doesn't need you.":
Thumbsucker is the brilliant and very different tale of Justin Cobb(Lou Taylor Pucci) a high school senior who's still very attached to his bad habit of sucking on his thumb. When Justin's eccentric dentist(Keanu Reeves) hypnotizes him into believing his thumb leaves a bad taste in his mouth, Justin's security blanket is gone and chaos ensues. Of course the plot thickens when we learn Justin's problem might not only be the childish act of thumb sucking, but a.d.d. as well. With the help of... more info
Solid:
Thumbsucker is the first film made by indy director Mike Mills, in 2005, and it's a solid film, but nowhere near as good as one might presume according to its plaudits. The story was adapted from an autobiographical 1999 novel by Walter Kirn, and while it is uniformly well acted the basic problem is that it is yet in another of the series of `American suburbia is hell' films. Given the last few years of terrorism and war this simply does not resonate as strongly as it did a decade or so ago, and even then... more info
