TIME TO GROW UP AND FACE “THE WACKNESS”

You may remember The Wackness from last year. It created quite a bit of a stir as far as independent films go. Starring Ben Kingsley (who in my eyes is now a movie classic) The Wackness is not what is typically envisaged as a “indie” movie and that is possibly what has brought it such wide acclaim.
But let me not get ahead of myself and give you a brief outline of the story. The Wackness is the story of two very unlikely characters. One is Dr Squires, a well-known therapist (Ben Kingsley) who has a very complicated life (to put it mildly) despite his seemingly perfect home with his younger wife and intelligent sassy step-daughter. The other is his client Luke Shapiro who has his own opinions concerning loyalty (such as refusing to listen to cds and continuing to use cassettes) and lives pretty much in his own world because he doesn’t fit into his school “milieu” (even though he is popular there because he is the main supplier of weed) or in his problematic household (even though he is the one actually keeping the house on its feet with the money he gets selling weed). Ben Kingsley is in fact one of his clients and pays for the weed not in money but free séances.
Their friendship seems bizarre and unlikely even to themselves but undoubtedly grows. And when Ben Kingsley’s refusal to accept responsibility and act his age are coupled with Luke’s growing pains, family problems not to mention his crush on Dr Squires’ step-daughter the adventures that follow take us up and down the spectrum of feelings from the comical and absurd to coy and romantic, from truly hopeless and desperate to exciting and hopeful…
In a lot of films and reviews “true to life” can be read as somber. Not in this case. The Wackness although it is as “wacky” in many ways as the titles suggests, successfully tells the story of “growing up” no matter what your age is. A must-see.