Director: Spencer Susser
Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Devin Brochu, Rainn Wilson, Natalie Portman, Piper Laurie, John Carroll Lynch
Plot: Slacker, metal head Hesher (Gordon-Levitt) moves in with T.J. (Brochu), a young boy who recently lost his mother, after T.J. ruins Hesher's living situation.T.J.'s father (Wilson) is depressed and his grandmother (Laurie) is becoming more absent minded, so Hesher comes into help...sort of.
Did you know Joseph Gordon-Levitt is pretty good at acting? Well he is, so good in fact that he gets the lead role in weird,cult indie films like '500 Days Of Summer', 'Brick' and most recently 'Hesher'. The story of a magical metal head drifter who helps a recently widowed father and his son bring their life back together is the premise but it is not quite as simple as that; because for one Hesher has his own musical cue..and that's just awesome.
Hesher himself is pretty awesome too. He's an arsehole but he's awesome. This a guy that invites himself into someone's home, abuses the people that live there and routinely puts a young boy in danger, but hey that's just Hesher. He is a larger than life character that is destructive, vulgar, violent and sweary; so essentially the coolest character seen in recent years. However as cool as he may be, there is a rather big problem that Gordon-Levitt's character brings to the the film and that is that he feels unrealistic.
Now I know the idea of Hesher being such a jolting, larger than life character is purposefully done to make the father and son move on with their lives, but he can be distracting to me as a viewer as well. Not to take anything away from Gordon-Levitt's performance because he is absolutely outstanding, but he sometimes feels like he's from a different movie.
The drama between the father and son is very well executed thanks mainly to Rainn Wilson who puts in one hell of a performance as the downbeat grieving Dad, which is a clear message to audiences that he is more than Dwight from 'The Office'. His son TJ is played reasonably well by Devin Brochu who doesn't quite nail the more emotional scenes as it seems unnatural when he swears and uttered a curse before. He is however far better than most child actors and is more than serviceable - he ain't Jake Lloyd put it that way.
Natalie Portman also pops up in a small role as a check out assistant TJ has a crush on and she does fine, but feels pretty unnecessary in the bigger picture. She is there for essentially one reason and you can guess it pretty early on. One thing that really annoyed me was they stuck some crap glasses on her to try make her less attractive...she's Natalie Portman! Just cast someone less attractive if that's the role. But regardless she does OK.
What works best about this movie is the blend of drama and comedy. It's not always the funniest of the movies and is soooo dark at times it's like 'Schindler's List', Hesher provides the laughs, creates the drama and the family lives through the drama. It's that simple really. Its not the most complex of films, but it tells a simple story and does it well.
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