I saw this last night on the verge of getting over a cold, which has drained me of my usual long attention span. Being not so patient, I sat through the hour and forty minutes of quirkiness, hearing the audience react in a way I couldn't. So I sat there, criticizing, trying to enjoy what moments seemed enjoyable. And I did enjoy it for the most part.
Based on the book by Ned Vizzini, the movie is about introverted Craig. Craig (Keir Gilchrist), 16, is not quite a severe case of depression. When we first meet him, he's about to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge--actually, he does it. It's confusing whether or not his parents showing up to stop him is real or if he's dreaming, nor is it explained. And I don't care much for the dialogue there. Me=1, Movie=0. So that morning, he checks himself into the psychiatric ward of a hospital. He tells the front desk, "I want to kill myself." She hands him a chart and says, "Fill this out." Me=1, Movie=1.
He sees a doctor, an Indian one (because this is a movie and it needs diversity so in with the Indian doctor). The doctor is about to send him back home when Craig makes a desperately bold speech about how he absolutely cannot go home, fearing "I might...do something." The doctor reluctantly checks "admitted" on the chart. Thus opens the doors to a windowless, bottom-floor world of psychosis in its different forms. Me=1, Movie= still 1.
Craig is shown the room he'll be staying in for five days minimum, and his roommate, an old Egyptian man who "hasn't left the room in weeks." Me=1, Movie=2.
Bobby is played by Zach Galifinaikis, and rightfully so. Bobby is comfortably insane, wearing his pudgy body and scruffy beard and sad eyes like a walking teddy bear. Craig likes him because Bobby gives him more attention he's received in weeks. The diagnosis doesn't matter. What matters is that they're there, alive, interacting like two new friends at school. The pacing tends to remain a bit slow even though Craig is now at the hospital. Me=2, Movie=3.
Noelle (Emma Roberts) is another specimen of the ward. Also 16 and donning three scars on her left cheek, she takes an interest in Craig after watching him offer Bobby one of his dad's shirts for an interview. Noelle, playing the ultimate teen, thus too shy for direct verbal contact, drops a note at Craig's feet telling him to meet her that night.
They play the Question Game, where she asks him a question and he must answer with a question. This is point where I stopped seeing Craig as imaginary and started appreciating Keir's abilities to pretend like he was a depressed adolescent attempting to flirt with a pretty girl in a mental hospital. The cool shyness is mastered with a few raised eyebrows and seemingly coy teasing that made me wish I was Noelle just so he could ask me questions. Me=2, Movie=4.
As Bobby puts it, their chemistry is like his vocalized air missiles followed by an explosion.
Truth be told, my favorite part of this movie has to be during "music time" when half the patients gather round in a circle with various instruments and attempt to recreate "Under Pressure" by Queen. Noelle has a tambourine while Craig is just fine empty handed so he can watch peacefully. But then, the instructor insists he must do something, so "you're on vocals." The last thing anyone wants to hear at a hospital. After much encouragement, Craig stands at the mic. Then begins a dream sequence of rock n' roll where Craig has a mohawk and skinny jeans, Bobby is on keyboard, Noelle is on guitar, and they're all in 80's David Bowie attire. I much enjoyed watching Keir's abs through his open leather jacket. Me=2, Movie=5.
As you can see, IKFS won by a few points.
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