The Adventures of Sebastian Cole

There's something about Adrian Grenier, who stars as the title character, that elevates The Adventures of Sebastian Cole despite a fragmented structure and a lousy ending. The story follows 17-year-old Sebastian through a year complicated by family upheavals: an older sister heading off to college, his stepfather Hank (Clark Gregg) announcing that he wants to become a woman, and his mother (Margaret Colin) responding by yanking Sebastian off to England. After returning home to live with "Henrietta" (i.e., Hank), Sebastian turns his senior year of high school into a series of "adventures" (abandoning his classwork, romancing and dumping girls, generally raising hell). To whatever extent the film succeeds, it's due to Grenier's ability to make Sebastian's self-destructive streak seem genuinely dangerous, not merely the garden-variety surliness of your typical American teenager. Clark Gregg also brings a surprisingly graceful charm to Henry/Henrietta, making the odd relationship between Sebastian and him/her quite touching. The rest of the narrative, quite frankly, is a big scrambled mess, sending Sebastian from here to there and back again in a haphazard manner perhaps in keeping with his state of mind, but trying to a viewer's patience, and the whole thing devolves into absurdity in the final ten minutes. Otherwise, it's a coming-of-age story with a welcome edge and an even-more-welcome absence of rosy reminiscence. Strong optional. (S. Renshaw)