Besides being stuck with one of the most disagreeable titles in recent memory—a reference to a ship's mate who washes muck off the hull, but here applying to anyone who cleans up a mess—Arie Posin's off-center portrait of teen angst is largely a misfire, though one with a formidable cast. Brit Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot) plays Dean, a disaffected suburban American high schooler whose only friend—the campus drug-pusher—hangs himself. Before long the school bully tries to pressure Dean to turn over his late pal's stash of dope, ostensibly kidnapping his younger brother (but mistakenly grabbing the wrong boy). Meanwhile, all of the parents are either clueless about what's going on or inept in dealing with the situation—Dean's dad, a psychologist, uses him as a case study, and the mother of the kidnapped lad doesn't even realize he's missing. Despite a strong cast, including Glenn Close and Ralph Fiennes, and a few genuinely affecting moments, The Chumscrubber mostly comes across as a pastiche of easy jibes at suburbia and stale commonplaces about the chasm that exists between parents and children in such an emotionally arid environment—it's a shrill, simpleminded satire that wants to be daring but ends up feeling as prefabricated as the suburban landscape in which it's set. Not recommended. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary by director Arie Posin and writer Zac Stanford, 10 deleted and extended scenes (15 min.), a 12-minute “making-of” featurette, and trailers. Bottom line: a decent extras package for a disappointing film.] (F. Swietek)
The Chumscrubber
DreamWorks, 108 min., R, DVD: $29.99, Jan. 10 Volume 21, Issue 1
The Chumscrubber
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