Thumbsucker is a film that is unconventional in its approach to the coming-of-age tale. With a sharp wit infused into the dark humor, it presents the story of a boy who struggles with an addiction that seemingly stands in the way of his reaching adulthood. This seventeen year old boy still sucks his thumb.
Justin Cobb (Lou Taylor Pucci) is your average teenaged loner. As he moves through life in slow motion, he turns to his thumb as a crutch and comfort for the frustrations and anxieties that he feels in school and at home. While everyone suffers from awkwardness during the high school years, Justin certainly gets a great deal of his anxieties from the pressures from his parents. His mother, Audrey (Tilda Swinton), is a night nurse at a celebrity rehab center. Audrey has an obsession of her own: TV actor Matt Schramm (Benjamin Bratt). Mike Cobb (Vincent D’Onofrio), is Justin’s father, a manager of a store who failed to reach the pros in football after a knee injury, thereby failing to meet everyone’s expectations, especially his own.
When Justin is berated into quitting his thumb-sucking habit by his concerned father, he seeks help from his hippie, new age dentist, suitably played by Keanu Reeves. After hypnosis fails him, Justin begins to slide from one addiction to another, whether it is his thumb, winning at his debate team matches with the encouragement of his teacher, Mr. Geary (Vince Vaughn), or a girl.
The film consistently makes a powerful statement about how people seek change for what they think will make them happy. Somehow the characters expect these drastic transformations in themselves to suddenly and magnificently better their lives. For instance, Justin sees ADHD medication as a quick fix for his inability to focus, and while at first it seems like a success, it only turns him into an egotistical and victory-thirsty monster.
In a film that is replete with big name actors from Bratt to Vaughn to Reeves, Lou Pucci, a virtual unknown, steals the show. He is put front and center as the troubled teen struggling through his last year of high school, and he never fails to capture each moment that he is meant to portray. His soft-spoken awkwardness lends itself to his ability to contribute to the dark humor of the film, as well as the break-throughs that Justin experiences when he becomes accepting of his own humanness.
One of the most touching and relatable themes of the film is the parent-child relationship; what we want, and what our parents want for us and for themselves. While both his mother and father mean well and truly want the best for Justin, they repeatedly have difficulty expressing it in a way that Justin can accept. The quiet moments in which they do connect and find some common ground of understanding are subtle and sincere.
This honest and endearing film stands out from the crowd of generic coming-of-age stories. Played with heart and humor, Thumbsucker has a genuine understanding of the dissatisfaction and frustration of the formative years of an individual’s life as Justin embarks on a journey in which he seems to get all the right answers at all the wrong times. But as his dentist explains, the trick to life is living without any answers. Or so he thinks.
