Rocket Science USA (wgvu) - Adolescent love is hard enough as it is if you're relatively normal, accepted by your peers, and if you're free from overly obvious differences. But if you're like Hal Hefner, the stuttering teen in Rocket Science, a new independent film from director Jeffrey Blitz, it's agony. Blitz directed Spellbound the wonderful documentary about the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee, and he has created a fictional film that's nearly as great. Reece Thompson is Heffner, who watches his father angrily and loudly leave his mother, in the first scene. That sets the tone for the entire movie, a narrative that screams emotional drama for both adolescents and adults when it comes to romance. Hal's obsession is Ginny, played by Anna Kendrick, a debate team champion. She recruits Hal after watching him cringe on stage at a school presentation. (clip) Hal joins the debate club and Ginny begins to tutor him. And on the days when they're not studying, he spies on her bedroom window with Lewis, her neighbor. Lewis's parents play music together for marital therapy, and let the kid in on their exploration of the Kama Sutra. (clip) As Hal is attempting to deal with his overwhelming attraction to Ginny, the first girl who's ever given the proverbial time of day, he's also dealing with his mother who's dating their neighbor, the father of his friend Heston.(clip) Opportunity in misery is one of the underlying themes of Rocket Science, but that doesn't get in the way its humor. The movie is very funny, and perceptive not only about sex and love and family, but about the little details that makes life both painful and enjoyable. At one point Hal asks his father about the meaning of it all, and love in particular, and the man rambles sleepily about missing his exit, and how to find the highway. His son looks at him and says, It's not rocket science. This movie isn't, either, but it's heartfelt in its irony, and hilarious in its misery. I'm very glad I saw it. © Copyright 2012, wgvu