Sunday, May 10, 2009

The Go Getter

The Go-Getter
Director: Martin Hynes
Starring: Lou Taylor Pucci, Zooey Deschanel & Jena Malone
Genre: Drama, comedy
Rated: R
Tag line: Life doesn't come with a road map.
Amazon rating: 5 out of 5 stars
My rating: 5 stars

Plot: Deciding to steal a car, Mercer goes on a journey to find his half brother Arlen. During the trip, Kate, the owner of the car he has stolen, stays in touch with him via her cell phone, which was also in the car.

Review: " I always had a problem with Huckleberry Finn. I mean, I liked the story, I read it, but the river... it made me feel stuck," Mercer starts the film with words that may reflect our young adult lives. We are born. We go to school. We have small responsibilities, but inevitably we are stuck.

So what makes this film so special? Clearly, we have been down this path in the past with several other movies that deal with adolescent and post adolescent "stuckness." What separates The Go Getter from other films of the same trade? The answer's quite clears: Mercer's journey doesn't involve the typical teen film fodder - he isn't on a quest to get laid, nor does he intend to do drugs. He's on the quest to find, not just his older half-brother Arlen to tell him that their mother has died about nine months prior, but to eventually find himself and his place in this god-ridden world.

Attempting to mold the past into the present, Mercer questions what would have happened if he stayed near Reno where Joely was. What would happen if he returned to the place and find her - would she fall in love with him? Would he fall in love with her? And what of his brother? And the mysterious Kate whose car he has stolen? It's just a journey of self realization, but a journey - the passage - the rite into manhood, sans sex (even though, sex is involved).

What gives the movie its icing is the incredible cast. Jena Malone as the slutty, drug user Joely who seduces Mercer in every which way in order to gain his trust and eventually use him for her own purposes. Zooey Deschanel as the beautiful nice girl next door persona of Kate; those innocent wide eyes, caring and alluring in the same moment. Her voice as she echoes through Mercer's long conversations at night, his remembering his journey to her. And not to mention Lou Taylor Pucci as the ever lost, ever wandering and disappointed Mercer, whose original reason to leave his prison of Eugene, Oregon to seek out his older half brother is lost the moment he begins to fall in love with Kate and in lust with Joely.

It's Almost Famous without the rock stars, the cheesy one liners and Jimmy Fallon. It's White Oleander without the screwed up mother, the sexual history and the drug addictions. American Pie with a greater purpose and a better rite of passage. What separates The Go Getter from its brethren is the honesty, its charm and its universality of finding ourselves by getting lost in the world we thought we knew.


No comments:

Post a Comment