I really liked this movie. It was unusual, and the casting and acting were good. The movie captured the wide gulf between adults and children very well. I see a lot of shows on TV where the parents are concerned and mentally healthy and wonderfully helpful and caring with their children, but in my experience that's pretty rare. This movie was much closer to what I see - parents that are self-involved and very out of touch with their children's lives, and what their children are doing or dealing with. The actor who played Dean was perfect in that role, as was the kid who played Billy. I liked the scary touch when Billy's dad called him out of the room and you didn't know what he was doing to him. The weaselly kid who studied and kidnapped and almost committed murder was hilarious. I didn't like the kid who played Dean's brother - too creepy and annoying. All of the parents were good, and I was glad to see Trinity come out of the Matrix and play a non-sci fi role - she's pretty talented, and too many sci-fi actors/actresses get typecast into that genre. The only thing that really detracted from the movie was the weird storyline of the mayor and the dolphin - what the heck was THAT all about? it seemed disassociated from the rest of the movie, and added absolutely nothing (except boredom). I don't know how Ralph Fiennes agreed to play that role. Other than that, a really good movie for people who are tired of the same old retreaded Hollywood tripe.
Review of The Chumscrubber
