Luke Shapiro (Josh Peck) is a young drug dealer. He supplies
drugs to his psychiatrist Dr. Squires (Ben Kingsley) and to the good doctor’s
daughter Stephanie (Olivia Thirbly). Shapiro is a loner without any friends. He
has a crush on Stephanie.
When the school is out for the summer and all the students
go away, he gets his opportunity to strike friendship with her. However,
Shapiro has trouble brewing, quite literally, at his home front where his
father has endangered their abode because of his bad investments and Shapiro
and his family are staring at eviction.
This is a funny and often poignant take on Shapiro’s journey
through the hurdles of life. The interactions between him and his psychiatrist
are the life of the movie. The dialogues are often rapier sharp and smart.
Ben Kingsley is in the form of his life in the part of a
shrink who wants to “get laid”. He mouths obscenities as well as erudite
thoughts perfectly and it is apparent to the viewer that he has had great fun
while performing the role. Peck is also
pretty cool in his part and after watching this, I casually browsed through his
filmography and found myself staring at a long list of shitty movies. He should
choose better as he definitely has the potential.
The director Jonathen Levine would go on to direct more
famous movies like 50/50 and Warm Bodies in the future. Here, he is the
scriptwriter too and does a very good job at the helm.
This is a relatively unknown and unappreciated little gem. I
wholeheartedly recommend this to anyone who wants to enjoy a good comedy with
just the right touch of drama and romance.
Will look out.
ReplyDelete