I am aware of the fact that it has been a while since I wrote about films - well, not so long, but I am definitely not following my "one review a day" rule. Nevermind. For my defense, the week-end was pretty wild - a fantastic party with a lot of dancing at Dar Hall - and I didn't have a minute. But I did have time to watch films, and I did. I won't write about them all - for instance, Detective Dee, a fair entertaining/ magical/ kung fu/ fairy tale Chinese film, and that's pretty much all. However, I wanted to write about this one called TERRI that I saw on Saturday night, because it felt like one of these "good coming of age films that you've seen a dozen times", which made me think about the Sundance-type film.
Directed by Azazel Jacobs and set in an undefined landscape - trees, forest, high school -, the film follows Terri, an oversized teenager living with his dying uncle in a cabin near the woods. Terri doesn't seem to be able to fit in. He goes to school wearing his pajamas and enjoys killing mouses with mousetraps in the house's attic. Often, people laugh at him because of his look - the poor darling has no friend. The only person he really likes is Heather - he is actually in love with her -, but she doesn't seem to notice him, to busy letting the hipper kid of the school touching her intimate parts. In this difficult environment, there is someone who cares about Terri: the headmaster, Mr Fitzgerald (the always very good John C. Reilly). The latter starts asking Terri to come to his office weekly for a little chat, and the boy begins to consider this caring adult as a friend. However, one day, he realizes that all the weird kids of the school have weekly meeting with Mr. Fitzgerald, including Chad - the angry teenager who eats his own hair. Terri gets upset, of course, but eventually, he starts building himself, making friends, enjoying life - even though it is not always simple.
TERRI is a good and fair film. It is well-made, the rhythm is pleasant, the characters exist, the cinematography is nice. It is a classic coming-of-age story about misfit and high-school. Sometimes funny, sometimes touching, sometimes hard, sometimes naive, sometimes sensitive, it is never boring. The actors all do a fantastic job here, teenagers and adults, but the result is a film you've since before, a film you won't really remember after all. A typical Sundance type film/ basic US indie piece - great treatment, nice story, feelings and intelligence, but no originality. Very predictable. A square construction. I kept thinking about it, wondering what was missing, and I finally found the answer : spontaneity.
MJ.
