Jacob Wysocki, John C.Reilly
“TERRI” My rating: C+ (Opening Aug. 26 at the Tivoli)
105 minutes | MPAA rating: R
Taking a cue from its Baby Huey-ish title character, “Terri” has a big heart.
But you’ve got to wade through a lot of weirdness to get a glimpse of it.
The nominal hero of director Azazel Jacobs’ film is an obese bundle of lethargy. Not that Terri (Jacob Wysocki) has a whole lot to get excited about.
Abandoned by his parents, the teen lives in a sort of bric-a-brac-littered fairy tale cottage in the middle of the woods with his Uncle James (Creed Bratton), who is battling dementia.
One day Uncle James seems alert and erudite; the next he’s a drowsy zombie.
It’s hard to tell who’s taking care of whom.
Being the tallest and fattest kid in high school would be bad enough, but Terri manages to compound his outsider status by dressing exclusively in pajamas. He says they’re comfortable.
His current obsession is trapping the mice that have invaded the attic and then leaving their tiny corpses on a log in the forest for a hawk to feast on.
Being perennially tardy, Terri spends a good chunk of time warming a bench in the office of Mr. Fitzgerald (John C.Reilly), the vice principal in charge of discipline.
His frequent companion is the miscreant Chad (Bridger Zadina), a scrawny, mouthy neurotic whose impulsive hair-tugging has left a bald spot. Chad looks like a Yorkie with mange.
At the heart of “Terri” is the deepening relationship between Terri and Mr. Fitzgerald, who’s supposed to be an authority figure but prefers the role of laid-back confidant and big brother.
Reilly, who’s unusually adept at combining soul with silliness, practically steals the movie. His Fitzgerald is really just a big kid himself — 30 years earlier he might even have been a Terri or Chad — and now he enjoys playing the seasoned mentor.
Except that his counseling sessions are always being interrupted by exasperating calls from his shopaholic wife. He’s perhaps not as together as he’d like Terri to think.
In a movie that’s mostly funny strange, Reilly gives us a badly needed dose of funny ha-ha.
Moreover, Teri begins to open up once he regards Fitzgerald as a sort of buddy. Turns out he’s a lot more observant than we first gave him credit for.
The second half of “Terri” centers on our lad’s relationship with Heather (Olivia Crocicchia), who scandalizes the school when she’s caught being, ahem, pleasured in class by her creepy lab partner. She’s about to be expelled when Terri — a witness to the incident — explains to Fitzgerald that from his perspective it was clear that Heather was an unwilling participant bullied into acquiescence.
Olivia Crocicchia
Here’s where “Terri” goes off the tracks.
When we first see Heather she seems painfully shy, emotionally stunted…maybe even a bit slow.
But now she begins showering attention on Terri for his heroic intervention. It starts out rather sweetly — Terri has hardly talked to a girl, much less been admired by one.
The Heather who now emerges is bluntly crude and sexually provocative…and it just doesn’t wash. Crocicchia has proven her acting chops on TV’s “Rescue Me” (she plays Denis Leary’s younger daughter), but she can’t make believable Heather’s transition from wan wimp to willing wanton.
You’ve got to wonder if Jacobs and screenwriter Patrick Dewitt have ever spent any time with a teenage girl.
| Robert W. Butler
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