The Chumscrubber [DVD]

Suburban malaise, teenage angst, and general family dysfunction is at the center of Chumscrubber, a darkly ironic and incongruous film that explores our often-times skewed middleclass values, our obsession with materialism, and the over-reliance on prescription drugs to medicate children, when perhaps all they really need is someone to talk to.

It's a beautifully acted film, and has a terrific screenplay, and there's also lots of oddball characters thrown into the mix, but some viewers may find Chumscrubber a little to self-important and self conscious for it's own good. Adults act like selfish children; children act like egotistical adults, and self-obsession and miscommunication seems to be de rigor in this world of prefabricated suburbia.

Dean (a wonderful Jamie Bell) is a reclusive thoughtful teenager, whose life is turned upside down when he discovers that his best friend Troy (Josh Janowicz), the school drug supplier has hung himself. Anxious to get their hands on his hidden stash, a group of kids at school decide to blackmail Dean by planning to kidnap his younger brother, Charlie (Rory Culkin).

Billy (Justin Chatwin), Crystal (Camilla Belle), and Lee (Lou Taylor Pucci) hopefully will be able force Dean to come up with the drugs; the problem is that they kidnap the wrong Charlie (Thomas Curtis). Meanwhile, Terri (Rita Wilson) Charlie's an obnoxious interior designer mother, is just so focused on her upcoming remarriage to Michael, (Ralph Fiennes) the town's increasingly wimpy mayor that she doesn't notice her child is missing.

But Dean has problems of his own: plagued with grief over his best friend's death, he keeps taking prescription drugs forced on him by his pop-psychiatrist Dr. Phil-like father (William Fichtner), whose self-help book empire is threatened by Dean's pathological lack of interest. His self-obsessed mother (Allison Janney) is also hectically running her own show, too busy peddling her own new age vitamin supplement business, and is oblivious to Dean's problems.

Carrie, the mother of Troy (Glenn Close) wanders the neighborhood in a daze, returning dishes, madness blooming in her eyes, but no one bothers to reach out to her. Terri's wedding is planned for the same time that Carrie has scheduled her son's memorial, thus dividing the cul-de-sac neighbors over which event to attend. And Officer Lou Bratley (John Heard) is planning ways to disrupt that wedding and get Terri back, whilst Jerri (Carrie-Ann Moss) is trying to stay young by flirting with her daughter's friends; and Mayor Michael tries desperately to connect spiritually with the world around him.

It's all terribly dysfunctional as director Arie Posin manages to walk a fine line between satire and serious drama. But Chumscrubber works, and whilst the acidic comments on suburban life are nothing new, the film has an edgy, and darkly mordant humour that saves it from mediocrity. Tribute must also be given to Posin's talent as a director that he can assemble such a fine cast – all the actors perform magnificently, a deft mixture of the oddly amusing and the darkly touching. Mike Leonard January 06.

Of all the dramedies about suburbia's dark side, "The Chumscrubber" has to be the one... with the absolute worst title.

But fortunately almost everything else about the movie is good. Arie Posen's first full-length movie does manage to be jaded without being heartless, dark without being self-conscious. Instead it's morbidly funny -- few movies can make drugs, kidnapping and mental collapse seem so entertaining.

Dean (Jamie Bell) visits his drug-dealing pal Troy for some Prozac -- and finds Troy hanging from a noose. He simply walks out of the house, past a house-party full of adults. There's no point in telling them, because everyone around him is too preoccupied.

In the days that follow, Troy is tormented by his classmates, and by his psychoanalytical dad, who is trying to make him feel grief against his will. But things take a nasty turn when school thug Billy (Justin Chatwin) demands that Dean turn over all of Troy's drugs... which he doesn't have. So he kidnaps Dean's little brother... except he gets the wrong kid.

Instead, Billy has kidnapped the future stepson of the town mayor. Now Billy is threatening to kill the kid unless Dean turns over the drugs. Sooner or later, someone is going to go looking for him. Things come to a head at a wedding and a funeral -- fights will break out, confessions will be made, and the kidnapping erupts into violence that disrupts both the wedding and the funeral.

Normally mental breakdowns and kidnappings aren't funny at all, but Arie Posen manages to make them seem that way. "The Chumscrubber" is full of weird, frighteningly plausible events like wedding-obsessed Terri failing to notice that her son is missing, or the kidnapped Charlie swimming with his kidnappers.

Most of the movie is a buildup, with the various people running around in their little bubbles, oblivious to everybody else -- even to amoral teens kidnapping little kids. The dialogue is deliciously wry and warped ("I don't think you're crazy." "You know, there are several major book chains that would be willing to disagree with you on that point...").

With a movie this cynica, it's surprising that he final half hour is even a bit heartwarming. But it is, when Dean finally faces up to how he felt about Troy, talks to Troy's increasingly fragile mother, and karma catches up to certain people. And Posen manages it without losing that sense of twisted irony.

The cast of characters aren't quite stereotypes, but they're definitely offbeat -- the kindly seductress, the dolphin-obsessed mayor, the mom obsessed with a "perfect" family and a little brother who pours powdered pills into food. But the best one here is Bell -- his numb, prickly acting is excellent, and he is nothing short of brilliant when he finally breaks down in his bedroom -- hallucinating about Troy.

Dark, twisted and bizarre, "The Chumscrubber" is a truly hilarious dramedy about disconnected living. Just ignore that awful title.

The Cumscrubber's plot is far from simple: When a popular high school drug dealer hangs himself, it's up to Jamie Bell to continue his legacy after a bunch of 'cool kids' kidnap a young boy (who they think is his brother) in order to make their plan of blackmail successful... and that's the sane part!

Certain other plot points include a woman so focused on having the perfect wedding that she looses all sense of logic; a mayor who slowly descends into madness through the symbolic shape of dolphins; a relentless and unforgiving police officer who's intent on getting his girl back by any means possible, and above all, stupendously dysfunctional families.

The Chumscrubber somehow manages to roll all these elements and more into quite a short little film, without ever crossing over that line into pretentiousness- which is something so many of these films unfortunately do. As always, Jamie Bell steals the show but admittedly has some good competition against a very strong supporting cast, which is useful as The Chumscrubber is extremely character driven.

Ignoring a few quiet flaws, -i.e. why everybody in the neighborhood seems to be going insane is never fully explained, and none of the characters seem to be particularly bothered about any of the strange events that're going on- The Chumscrubber still packs a heck of a punch by covering up its flaws with incredible weirdness.

By having all these amazing characters cooped up in one small suburban neighborhood -reminiscent of enclosing them all in a tiny room- the climax to The Chumscrubber seems like they're all let loose on each other like wild animals, as all the supposedly random events come together in a big, character driven, metaphorical explosion!

In the end, at these prices, The Chumscrubber is probably one of the greatest bargains on Amazon, due to it being more of an experience rather than a film. In a word, it's wonderful. The Chumscrubber defies all expectations in the best possible way, ending up as more of an enjoyabely quirky and ultimately odd fantasy fairy-tale. One of my instant favorites.

See this film.