Hesher

There is a scenario where I could kind of see Hesher working. If the approach was to make a parody of the type of films that have a manic pixie dream girl drop in and completely change the life of someone who's stuck in a rut/manically depressed/perfectly fine, and replace the girl with a dreadlocked/profane/tatooed/sociopathic/metal-head played by Joseph Gordon Levitt - I could see how that might have been interesting. Indeed the last two scenes in the film made me think that it might have been the maker's actual intent. However the rest of the film is so mis-executed that it doesn't even come close to achieving this goal or, indeed, coherence.

The film follows a boy who just lost his mother in a car accident, and whose father is so drugged out on pain killers he doesn't even notice when the titular Hesher moves in and starts throwing off everybody's equilibrium. Natalie Portman's also around but for what reason I have no idea. Anyway Hesher engages in increasingly sociopathic and deranged behavior that apparently has no consequences, but helps everyone move beyond their grief. Again I think this could have worked as satire, but the film plays everything so straight and cliched that any chance at humor is killed. Don't get me wrong Levitt has a live wire energy that is occasionally amusing, but its just wasted by the rest of the film. Its too bad because there are elements that could have worked, and actors I like (Rain Wilson as well as the aforementioned Levitt, and Portman) but all in all its just a, pretty tedious, misfire.