good back-story, and good acting

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Young people with speech impediments are the ones who have something to say, but have trouble saying it. I should know since I used to have problems saying "f" ,"th", "c" and "s". Maybe that's why I like the quirky, coming-of-age opus, "Rocket Science" and relate to its' hero, Hal Hefner (gawky but likable Reece Daniel Thompson of "Assassination Of A High School President" and "Daydream Nation"), who can't pronounce "pizza" when trying to order a slice, getting fish or some other alternative.Along with his verbal handicap, Hal has to deal with parents being separated (the dad moved out because the mother's an emotional wreck!) and his kleptomaniac bully of a brother Earl (Vincent Piazza, also of "President") while living in New Jersey. Salvation comes in the form fast-talking Virginia "Ginny" Ryerson (spunky Anna Kendrick of "Scott Pilgrim" and "Up in The Air"), an ambitious fellow student who's in the school's debate club.Ginny recruits Hal as her new partner; her last one, equally verbal Ben Wekselbaum (handsome Nicholas D'Agosto) choked during a debate. It seems Hal's on the road to greatness while falling for Ginny, but she betrays him by transferring to another school and joining its' own debate club. High school, ye cruel mistress… Drawing from his own experiences as a stutterer, Jeffrey Blitz (the documentary "Spellbound" and some episodes of "The Office: USA") neatly injects low-key, eccentric humor, teen angst and quiet philosophy into the profound script while directing it. Thompson, as Hal, sweetly embodies thoughtfulness muted, being more mature than his peers, yet his age and speech impediment hinder and relegates him to a ghost. That makes him relatable to anyone has or is currently going through adolescent alienation. Kendrick's perfectly scholar-motivated, yet voluntarily oblivious to her, let alone other people's imperfections.Standouts in the film include Aaron Yoo ("The Wackness", "Nick and Norah's Inflinite Playlist") as Heston, an odd classmate who has a weird (yet not homosexual) attraction towards Hal; Ginny's neighbor Lewis (Josh Kay), who has a giant bra and whose parents get along by playing Violent Femmes tunes (the dad plays the piano, the mom plays the cello and don't be surprised if you hum to the beat) and Jonah Hill ("Cyrus", "Superbad") as a serious junior philosopher who hangs out in the school's library. There's also Denis O'Hare ("True Blood") as Hal's world-weary dad.Though it follows the basic quirkiness that infest a lot of indie comedies, "Rocket Science" stands out with a plot twist and a lead character you can't help but root for.

Very interesting movie, although in the end not very realistic. It features a type of debate style I had never seen, where participants speak in a very rapid style, to get out as much information in their alloted time. Although the actors weren't necessarily chosen because of this trait, they do it very well.Reece Thompson is arguably the main actor as Hal Hefner, the meek high school kid with a bad stuttering problem. Hal is smart, he analyzes his own situation well, he has sessions with a teacher to learn how to overcome the problem, but nothing seems to work.So Hal and we, the audience, are quite surprised when one day on the bus to school Anna Kendrick as cute and smart Ginny Ryerson approaches him to convince him to join the debate team. Seems one stellar debate team member just up and quit, and left school, and they needed to recruit someone. She just knew Hal could be a stellar debate member.Hal of course is reluctant but is attracted to Ginny who it seems is also leading him on a bit. She has ulterior motives, but it doesn't surface until much later.In my earlier remarks I said the story doesn't seem realistic. In high school (or college, for that matter) would a debate team coach put up for competition a stutterer without ever having that person demonstrate that they could perform properly in practice? From my experience the answer is "no".Anyway the story is really about Hal and how this experience was the catalyst for his own growing up, to be able to realize what is really important in life.SPOILERS: Ginny had an ulterior motive. She wanted to add someone incompetent to the team, to help her own chances of winning the state title. The prior year she and her partner would have won, had he not quit during the final debate. Feeling cheated, she made plans to partner with a boy on the rival team, and after getting Ben on her own school team, she quit and enrolled at the other school just in time to compete.

A movie can get no more boring than this. It's a movie about a little, annoying twit with a stutter who gets to help a girl out on the debate team. The boy is Hal (Reece Thompson, just annoying as hell in this.) The girl is Ginny (Anna Kendrick, also pretty bad in this.) Together they form an annoying, stupid predictable relationship. The only mild laugh was from Jonah Hill as a student who sits next to Ben at the library. The movie is a mess from start to finish. It's another annoying, extremely predictable teen comedy in which a no one gets to be a someone. There is no real plot, the characters feel too forced, and scripted, and the jokes are just depressing. I can't really say I was disappointed by this film- I knew nothing of it, although I regularly do like D'Agosto. I feel like I should have never seen it. It's 98 minutes of my life I'll never get back. It's such an annoying film. The main problem with the film is that the film presents itself with a main character I just wanted to shut up. It's a movie of such tedium and annoyance that I have to say it's one of the worst film I've seen in a long, long time.

Though the ridiculously fast speech and demeanor of the "star" debaters in this movie is robotic, terrible form that would fail them in any real debate tournament, and some of the concept was extreme, this movie is as adept as any at showing the kind of venomous, backstabbing, "stop at nothing" kind of individual that our insanely competitive society and high schools is bringing up. While the movie is quite clearly getting so much from Election (one of the best satires of all time), it really is in truth, how so much works in today's high schools and society. High Schools are often a mini-world, a place where the parallels from the rest of society are readily observed, and, it's quite obvious that the message we are teaching our children is "The only way to win, is to cheat." Nothing works without corruption or scheming in our school system today. Whether it be the adept seductress working her magic on fellow students, or the sly student senator toying with a teacher, this kind of ridiculous, absolutely immoral action is occurring daily in our schools, and yes, it works, and yes, those who do not follow this inherently messed up system are dead from the start. Ginny's scheme is a perfect example of the kind of backstabbing, selfish, anything goes attitude we our instilling in the next generation, and eventually, we will pay the price.