I would have liked "Rocket Science" a lot more if I hadn't been so blown away by "In the Shadow of the Moon", but I did like it all the same.
Hal Hefner (Reece Thompson) is a shy teenager with an intermittent stutter. His parents are divorced, his brother Earl (an hilarious Vincent Piazza) is a very organized kleptomaniac and bully, and the school speech therapist is in the wrong job. Things just aren't good for Hal.
Hal's as intelligent as anyone, he just literally has a hard time expressing himself. When star debater Ginny (Anna Kendrick) approaches him to join the debate team as her partner he has his doubts but goes along with it - as much to be around her as anything. When she abandons him by transferring to another school he quits the team, but can't quit the idea of debate and living up to Ginny's apparent idea of him or getting revenge on her - it's about an equal measure of each.
This is a love-revenge comedy that works on most levels.
Writer/director Jeffrey Blitz has made a fine, funny, hopeful movie about youth finding its voice.
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