Hal Hefner is an average student at Plainsboro High School in New Jersey. He stutters and suffers the daily indignities of a typical teenager. With only a little encouragement, Hal falls in love with the star of the debate team, Ginny Ryerson and finds himself suddenly immersed in her ultra competitive world of high school debating, with its players, its politics and its own set of rules...

Hal Hefner lives in a poor part of town with his mother and brother. He has a debilitating stutter and is more than a little surprised when one of the school's best public speakers, Ginny Ryerson, tries to recruit him into the school's debating society. She tells him that people with speech problems have been proven to make the best debaters.

Things don't start well but slowly, over time... things improve ever so slightly. However, Hal is still not up to speaking in public, and for some unfathomable reason Ginny insists that he partner her in the school's upcoming debating competition - where he crashes and burns big time. But, with more tutelage, Ginny is convinced she can make a winner out of her loser, but what is she really up to?

Rocket Science is a coming of age movie that tries hard to deliver goods which it just doesn't have. While marketed as a comedy, there are very few laughs to be had and too much teenage angst injected. I probably smiled about twice throughout this film - but that could have been wind. And I laughed once - at the cello scene - and again at the brief scenes in which Jonah Hill (Superbad) appeared... but as far as comedy goes that's about your lot.

I sat through the whole movie, but only just. I was tempted on more than one occasion to switch off. Sadly I now wish I had - the conclusion isn't really worth the wait.

Extras include a rather dry interview with writer/director Jeffrey Blitz (22 min); brief interviews with the main cast; and the Theatrical Trailer. To be honest you can save yourself some time and watch the trailer instead of the main feature - it's got all the gags of the movie squeezed into two minutes.

If dry movies that go nowhere are your thing then you'll love this. Otherwise, this is definitely one I'd recommend renting rather than buying.

3

Darren Rea