Thumbsucker

Herald rating: ***

True, it's not often you get to ponder mystic depths of orthodonistry in many films, but there is still something deadly familiar about Thumbsucker. It's yet another awkward American teenager rites-of-passage flick, the sort of film that usually springs from the Sundance Film Festival and allows big established names to step outside their usual screen personae.

Actually, as the very zen dentist to 16-year-old oral obsessive Justin Cobb (Pucci), Reeves is more Keanu than he's probably ever been before, and his supporting role is a hilarious treat.

So too is seeing D'Onofrio (now better known as Criminal Intent's resident omnipotent weirdo) playing a family guy, albeit one who employs some unusual methods in his teaching job. Ditto for Swinton as Justin's caring if offbeat mom, who's also a nurse at a local rehab facility, and Vince Vaughn and Benjamin Bratt who contribute outlandish cameos.

While they're all engaging performances, the film rests on the delicate shoulders of Pucci, who is extremely watchable as his character switches gears from morose teenager to something altogether more worrying.

But the film itself can't seem to stir up much emotion or drama to its story, based on the Walter Kirn semi-autobiographical novel, about how trying to cure Justin's oral habit leads to greater anxieties.

That, in turns leads Justin to bouts of hyperactivity, experimentation with drugs and sex, an overabundance of self-assuredness and some unseemly behaviour between him and the fellow members of his high school debating team.

All of which is nothing if not quirky and frequently hilarious, but it's a little too precious and self-conscious to be anything but another minor indie charmer. And one that leaves a curious aftertaste.

CAST: Lou Taylor Pucci, Tilda Swinton, Vincent D'Onofrio, Keanu Reeves
DIRECTOR: Mike Mills
RATING: M, drug use
RUNNING TIME: 96 mins
SCREENING: Rialto