Just Peck

I watched this title knowing almost nothing about it other than I liked the two leads from the Showtime series, the United States of Tara. The setup is a well worn path, Keir Gilchrist plays Michael Peck, a 104lb Freshman invisible to his parents and those at school save for a small circle of friends.

Through a chance encounter he befriends Emily (Brie Larson), an attractive and popular senior at his school. They bond through their subsurface similarities, both are intelligent and posses a sharp tongue matched with a darkly funny evaluation of suburban life. But each are neglected by their parents, Peck's parents are overbearing and deaf to their sons concerns whilst Emily's just aren't there.

The two areas where this film just doesn't work are in the production values, this is obviously an independent film but unfortunately it sometimes looks like they stole set pieces from a direct to cable Disney film. The other let down is the direction, it is beyond flat. No style, no consistency in tone or the effort to create one, in retrospect it looks like they got their director from a Disney set as well.

The real saving grace is in a surprisingly good script, still let down with some strange turns and the performances. Gilchrist and Larson do seem to be following a reasonably close path to their turns in United States of Tara but in this film they're allowed the time to develop a successful character arc that not only works, but works well. Both turn in tender and genuine performances, and by the end Brie Larson particularly, really proves she has the acting chops to be taken seriously as a professional.

Whilst it has its flaws, Just Peck survives it's technical limitations through the talent of the cast and some originality and great laughs buried in an otherwise clichéd story.

7/10

One of my (many) pet peeves is when a movie about high schoolers features people who haven't seen the inside of a high school in 6 or 8 years. Why is it that old people are always too old to play old people and young people are too young to play young people? No such problem here. The main characters look age - appropriate. We see Peck weighing himself early in the movie... 104 lbs. By my calculation Keir Gilchrist was either 15 or 16 years old during filming. Not 23 or something. He's not Olivier but he comes across as a real kid. The interaction between him and his buddy Geiger put me right back into being in high school, and Geiger looked like a lot of high school kids I knew - kinda dog-faced but real. Even later in the story when they have a falling out and later get past it is something right out of my own teenage high school years.

The plot is anything but typical. It's not just school hi-jinks. Peck is a sort of geeky kid who somehow manages to connect as just a friend with a beautiful blond senior girl who has some personal problems. Sound funny? That part isn't. But there are some good laughs in the movie. In all though it's, as a guy I hate to use this word, but it's a sort of sweet story. It's a comedy but with heart. Peck's parents are waaay out there, wealthy and progressive far beyond a fault. Their interactions with the school principal are great, as they humorously and obtusely blame the school (or congratulate themselves) for each of their son Peck's latest offenses. The school's principal dreads having to interact with them as things never go the way these parent conferences are supposed to.

I sort of stumbled across this movie and I'm glad I did. It's not fantastic but I think a 7 on the 10 scale is not bad at all for a movie like this. I liked it and will certainly watch again.