The Chumscrubber (2005)

Reviewed 01.25.2006

Dean (Jamie Bell) is a high school loner who discovers his best friend's suicide and fails to inform his friend's mother (Glenn Close) about it at the time. Burdened with guilt, Dean willingly medicates himself with prescription drugs from his unbearable psychiatrist father (William Fichtner), and tries to put the event out of his mind. However, when a group of school thugs (Justin Chatwin, Lou Taylor Pucci, and fresh-faced Camilla Belle) come calling to retrieve stolen drugs that were promised to them by his dead friend, Dean is pushed into confronting his idiosyncratic, idyllically average suburban neighborhood, where the parents (including Carrie-Anne Moss, Ralph Fiennes, Rita Wilson, Lauren Holly, John Heard, Caroline Goodall, Jason Issacs, and Allison Janney) just don't know. In this surreal depiction of life in the 'burbs, every individual is completely self-absorbed and numb to the outside world. A child is kidnapped and his parents never even realize it!

Sounds like another angst-y decent into the dull world of suburbia, huh? Oh, it is, but I enjoyed every darkly satiric and cliched minute of it. The Chumscrubber takes a look at McNeighborhoods, the families that reside there, and examines the hypocrisy of it all. Each kids buries their emotion under Prozacs, Zantacs, Ritalins, and any other "happiness pills" they can find, while their parents drown their sorrows in one glass of wine after another. The well known ensemble cast (of adults, anyways) is amazing in their typical clueless roles. Glenn Close and Ralph Fiennes (and his dolphins) are the ones to watch.

The gang of youngsters are incredible. Jason Bell shines as he interacts in a world of fakes all the while dealing with these new found emotions himself. Camilla Belle is gorgeous, playing the typical girl-falling-for-the-bad-boy, Justin Chatwin. He won't win an award here, his delivery of over the top angst provides great comic relief. Rory Culkin in his role as Dean's younger brother Charlie, has the video game controller seared to his hand and never leaves the couch.

Director/writer Arie Posin has created a world where people are completely consumed with drugs and appearances. Helping the story along is an incredible score, a la James Horner and great indie tunes. Every moment of The Chumscrubber is either painfully shocking or absurdly hilarious. It all depends on you.