I wanted to but couldn't!

Did you people see the same film I saw?

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Terri is an overweight teenager who lives with his uncle who as far as I can tell has burgeoning dementia. His parents seem to have been absent for some time and as such his living situation isn't ideal. He's in trouble at school, predictably a target for the scum of the school. He ends up getting in trouble and playing truant as a result. Cue first unlikely event - the head teacher, under the guise of disciplining him decides to make a special effort with him, meeting with him every Monday morning to review progress, give him advice. This unwittingly brings him into a new circle of outsiders, notably Chad who attaches himself to him like a leech. Terri sees 2 fellow pupils indulging in a sex act in the home economics class, for which they are to be disciplined and expelled. He stands up for the girl though, partly as he has a soft spot for her but partly because he did actually witness some coercion on the part of the boy. Cue unlikely event number 2 - the girl is ostracised by fellow pupils for her behaviour which leads us nicely into unlikely event number 3: Terri humiliates himself to draw fire from a teacher who's about to discipline her for a misdemeanour. The girl takes a shine to Terri after this. The rest of the film seems to be about his thrill and terror trying to process her sudden affections for him, while having to deal with Chad's strangeness. It's all put together very competently and acted very well and has a nice feeling about it, but here's my fundamental problem with this movie. In my experience of kids that age, there's just no way an attractive teenage girl would be condemned by fellow pupils for that incident - she'd become famous overnight and wouldn't be lacking for friends, let alone go begging amongst the lowest echelons of the school class system. Furthermore, it's just too big a leap of faith to imagine her being interested in Terri. Someone will argue it's perfectly possible but in reality I just can't see it. Kids that age are so conscious of looks/appearances and what other people think - especially the good looking kids, so I can't buy this scenario at all. Also I found the head teacher's behaviour towards him extremely unlikely. Maybe school's changed since 23 years ago when I left but back then the best a kid like that could hope for from a teacher or head teacher was to be ignored. Sad but true. And I suspect that hasn't changed one bit. So while there's some lovely ideas in play here, and it's nice to imagine that fantasy world, it bears no reflection on the real world out there, which apparently the story's set in. So I just couldn't make the leap of faith and the film got away from me in the end and started to grate on me. This is a shame as there was some good acting, and it was a great setup for a story, just not that one. I suspect anyone experiencing Terri's kind of difficulties in the real world would find this saccharin tale deeply annoying.

Terri comes off as your typical indie film with awkward characters dealing with unique, yet realistic situations. Several times in the film it felt as if long time micro-budget indie director Azazel Jacobs, and screenwriter Patrick Dewitt were trying to be different because that what indie films are supposed to do, but their strong cast refuses to color inside the lines and let that happen.Newcomer Wysocki brings a true sense of realism as the title character Terri. He is an awkward outsider who doesn't fit in with the "normal" crowd in high school. After a series of late tardies and his refusal to wear anything other than pajamas to school he is sent to the principal's office where Mr. Fitzgerald (Reilly) takes an interest and gives the lost kid a sense of hope.John C. Reilly is no stranger to the indie scene with scores of roles in smaller films including recently in Cedar Rapids and Cyrus. Reilly easily blends in as an actor into any size of film no matter how large or small. He knows when to turn up the silly, or ease into the dark side. Reilly finds the perfect balance in Terri.The supporting cast discovers ways to make their mark as well. Bridger Zadina finds laughs as Terri's deeply disturbed new friend with scores of his own problems. Olivia Crocicchia, best known for her role as Denis Leary's daughter, Katy, on the long running television hit Rescue Me, has no trouble as the nice teenage girl slipping down the wrong path. She shows great promise, and is a role or two away from finding herself on the next big thing list. It was also nice to see Creed Bratton break away from his hilariously bizarre character on The Office. It's stunning to see him in a serious role.Terri had many chances to slip into the pit holes that bring down any hopeful indie film, but finds away to dance over the trouble. Just when the film felt like it was being indie for Indies' sake it threw a curveball…and this is one audience member who is glad that some film's still attempt to be different.For more quick reviews check out www.FilmStallion.com

The tag-line for "Terri" is "We've all been there." Yes, we have all felt alienated at some point in our lives. But unlike Terri, most of us do not pro-actively alienate ourselves. Terri is in high school and life is difficult for him because he's weird, over-weight and just plain unlikable. We're supposed to feel sympathy for him, but I never liked him.He wears pyjamas to school (the same ones everyday), takes joy in the demise of animals, and has no thought of altering his behaviour when kids bully him. The only thing that seems to help is when Assistant Principal Mr. Fitzgerald (John C. Reilly) takes an interest in helping him and denotes him as a good-hearted student.I like John C. Reilly and I like the idea of the principal wanting to help out the less popular kids. Fitzgerald's tactics are unorthodox and certainly not illegal or even immoral, but in reality, they would definitely get him fired. Terri's would-be friends were more interesting characters but the pretty and popular Heather who was written as knowing how pretty she is would be less likely to engage in low self-esteem actions.Perhaps "Terri" isn't even trying to place itself in reality. I don't know. For such a simple, slow-moving film, there was a number of things that I didn't know. Some of which they didn't tell me, others I just didn't care enough to find out the answers for myself. If Terri doesn't care, why should I?

Like other reviewers here I found the characters very poorly written, each one beginning and ending as an non-evolving caricature. The main character is someone who is seems content with his life as it is and has settled in to the role of caregiver to his uncle and apathetically likable outcast in his school.The films approach seems to be one of turning Terri's life experiences into utter banality in order to cope with the weight of their drama.Every character, especially Terri, has a shoulder-shrugged look at everything that goes on in the film. It's as though everyone is interacting with each other as though they have been desensitized to the point where even the most obnoxious behaviour is carried out with the the vigour of a sloth crawling along a tree branch to get to a leaf. That is this films ENORMOUS problem: in the end everything that occurs is treated with such a dull, tedious, and bored outlook that even the message of acceptance of who you are becomes a resignation more than a inspiration. Watching the last half of this movie was one of the most excruciating exercises in misplaced hopefulness I have ever experienced.