MOVIE: ROCKET SCIENCE

Shooting for the cultish and cool cinematic constellation populated by Napoleon Dynamite and The Garden State, Rocket Science unfortunately flounders and ends up crashing somewhere in the boggy, repetitive marshes of Yawnsville, uncomfortably close to Why Did They Bother? In it, geeky boy with a stutter (Reece Thompson) meets confident debating star (Anna Kendrick) when she tries to recruit him for the team (with rather dubious motives). They make out, she moves on, his heart is broken and stutter boy goes loop-de-loop in an effort to prove himself. It’s all OK on paper – but even  this earnest and talented young cast could not rescue Rocket Science’s half-hearted script and awkwardly quirky ‘look at me, I’m indie!’ posturing – and so ultimately it fails to fly. (AB)