Mills And Reeves Solicitors

Mills And Reeves Solicitors

Mills And Reeves Solicitors

Posted on: January 01, 2012 - 1:39 pm
by Admin

You'll get Thumbsucker's gist from the DVD's menu design, which gives us on-the-nose themes from the story; for example: "How can I be the parent, when I'm just the kid?" or "Oh right, answers. I'm just guessing" and "I love you so much I just can't deal with you."

This is a story about growth, about development, about what's important, and what's simply a ruse (hint: it rhymes with plumbplucking) - and how we're all just frightened animals as we grow and deal with the world.

The characters are lined up in neat little metaphoric rows for us to poke and prod. Justin (Lou Pucci) is our coming-of-age hero and thumbsucker, Mike (Vincent D'Onofrio) and Audrey (Tilda Swinton) are his parents and they are terrified of getting old (they insist that their children call them by their first names,) Dr. Perry Lyman (Keanu Reeves) is his mystical orthodontist who, well... sets things straight, and Mr. Geary (Vince Vaughn) is his teacher who is tasked with challenging and assessing Justin during this chaotic period.

Mills' use of intercutting time lapses to get into his characters heads works well and his use of a few surreal sequences will remind you of Donnie Darko. But Thumbsucker is not dark - it's an innocent world where being screwed-up is simply part of life. Trouble comes when we try and figure out why we're so screwed up - or real trouble when we try and fix it. Thumbsucker's lesson is not to simply say: no one can change. Its lesson is more: understand what it screwed up about you, and learn to live with you (notice I didn't write "it".)

Mild Plot Spoiler

Thumbsucker's plot is really quite simple: boy sucks thumb, boy tries and tries to not suck thumb, boy accepts he sucks his thumb. Mills and co-writer Walter Kirn use this device to show us a child and then force us to see that thumbsucking in this case is not childish.

The script does a fine job of dealing with such topics as over prescribed teen pharmaceuticals and drug use without getting preachy. There's never a sense of an all-powerful Being passing judgment - only how these substance-abuse answers are really not answers at all; they are simply the forest that Justin must pass through on his journey.