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| Hesher (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) in Hesher. |
By John Esther
Poor 13-year-old TJ (Devin Brochu). His mother (Monica Staggs) recently died in a car crash. His dad, Paul (Rainn Wilson), responds to the tragedy with futile numbness and a bully named Dustin (Brendan Hill) habitually harasses the boy at school. What is a grieving boy, who is also prone to accidents, to do? Enter Hesher (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a young man who lives in a van.
Hesher is hardly the ideal helper. He drinks, smokes and does whatever the hell he wants. A walking menace who stabs his food while eating, climbs up telephone poles in his underwear and blows up things, Hesher (a term meaning someone into heavy metal) moves into the house with TJ, Paul and grandma (Piper Laurie) and immediately becomes the man of the house, with guitar in hand.
Rather than provide proper guidance to TJ’s woes, Hesher in many ways intensifies them. He gets TJ into all sorts of trouble the youngster does not need. Or does he?
Directed by Spencer Susser and co-written by Susser and David Michôd, Hesher offers an unconventional way of dealing with grief. Whereas TJ and dad let the world beat them down, Hesher fights back. The reactions between Hesher on one side and dad and TJ on the other are extreme, yet the film supports the idea that fighting back , even if it calls for violence (more against property than people), is the way to go.
Performances by Gordon-Levitt, Laurie and Natalie Portman (playing a young woman beaten down by economic woes) are solid, while Brochu seems to have a sound acting career ahead of him. Wilson, a comedian and co-star of TV’s The Office, takes a chance with this dramatic role and it pays off. The writing is uneven but amusing enough to make the film worth a watch.
After waiting over a year since its screenign at Sundance 2010, Hesher is slated for release later this year.
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