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The Wackness

Another less-than-enjoyable tale of people trying to numb the pain

By Matt Pais

Metromix
July 1, 2008

Critic's Rating:

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High-school drug dealer Luke (Josh Peck) and his therapist/client Dr. Squires (Ben Kingsley) both struggle to handle their misery, their drug use and their need to get laid. While Luke tries to compensate for his parents’ financial woes and falls for Squires’ step-daughter (Olivia Thirlby), the doc contemplates splitting from his wife (Famke Janssen) and makes out with a freewheeling hippie (Mary-Kate Olsen).

Big question: Can writer-director Jonathan Levine’s coming-of-age stoner movie, set in 1994 New York, tell us something new about adolescent stress and late-adulthood regret?

Skip it: It’s prime time for eye-rolling as “The Wackness” unconvincingly labors to understand its sad sacks (such as a pothead who has nothing to talk about with her man unless they’re stoned) with lines like, “Sometimes it’s right to do the wrong thing.” The nonstop ‘90s references (Hey, remember Zima?!) will also have you groaning, even if you don’t consider a Kingsley-Olsen makeout session a sign of the apocalypse.

Catch it: If you agree with Squires that it’s unwise to trust anyone who doesn’t smoke pot and doesn’t listen to Bob Dylan. You may want to give this policy a trial run before making it permanent.

Bottom line: On some level, “The Wackness” succeeds in endorsing depression over suicide and the bittersweet opportunity to savor life’s every agony. But only Thirlby becomes someone who seems like a real person—one of many signs that the movie’s less rooted in human connection than characters smooshed together by a script that’s plenty messed up on its own.

Bonus: If you’re too nervous to say, “I love you,” to your significant other, Luke devises an effective substitution: “I want to listen to Boyz II Men when I’m with you.” Same difference!

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