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List Price: $14.94 | | Label: Sony Pictures
Salesrank: 30655
Released: January 24, 2006 |
| Our Price: $2.99 |
| Used Price: $1.99 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Justin cobb still sucks his thumb at 17. He believes that if he could just stop he would finally be happy & normal. The only thing that makes him quit is hypnosis administered by his orthodontist. But without his thumb justin feels more alienated than before & his real problems have just begun. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 06/24/2008 Starring: Lou Taylor Pucci Vincent Donofrio Run time: 96 minutes Rating: R
Description of Thumbsucker:
A sterling cast--including Vince Vaughn, Keanu Reeves, Vincent D'Onofrio, and especially Tilda Swinton--lifts this coming-of-age story above the norm. Justin (Lou Pucci, Personal Velocity) is 17, yet he still sucks his thumb. Depressed, he frets that his parents (D'Onofrio, Full Metal Jacket, and Swinton, Orlando) are going to split up, that he has no focus in life, and that the girl he longs for can never love him--until his orthodontist (Reeves, The Matrix) hypnotizes Justin into quitting his thumbsucking, and a questionable diagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder results in medication that launches him into a wave of over-achievement. The script, though it has some clever flourishes, never lifts beyond typical adolescent turmoil, but thanks to wonderfully vivid and multi-layered performances (including Vaughn, Wedding Crashers, as a debate teacher with hair issues), the movie never flags. Swinton also executive-produced the movie; she clearly saw in this suburban mother a character she could invest with as much emotion and intensity as the angel Gabriel (Constantine) or the White Witch of Narnia (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe). It's rich, intricate acting, never showy, yet mesmerizing. Thumbsucker also features Benjamin Bratt (Pinero) and Kelli Garner (Man of the House). --Bret Fetzer
Thumbsucker Reviews:
Next teen movie 
2009-10-20 - A next movie of a teen entering adult world with exploring sexuality and new stuff aroung is rather comedy than a drama of "in-between" speculations.
Funny and easy watching stuff.
Middling...
2009-07-12 - I remember the book being really good, but this movie about a teen who's still sucking his thumb definitely wasn't. Sure, there are tender scenes - Keanu Reeves is surprisingly good, and so are lookalikes Vince Vaughn and Vincent D'Onofrio - but Tilda Swinton is surprisingly boring, the main guy is so totally unforgettable that we still never understand from him why his parents' marriage is troubled, why he sucks his thumb, why he takes Prozac, and why his 10-year-old brother has more characer than he does...
Excellent Condition! 
2009-04-20 - I was very satisfied with my purchase. The DVD is in great condition and it plays perfectly =)!
3 stars out of 4 
2008-12-20 - The Bottom Line:
Ignored upon its release (and hardly thought of subsequently), Thumbsucker is an enjoyable coming-of-age story/comedy that features a perfectly cast Keanu Reeves (words I never thought I would write) and an appealingly different Vince Vaughn; it's worth seeking out.
What's your power animal?
2008-12-16 - I HEART BROKEN that Thumbsucker kind of dissipated like a diaphanous mist at the end instead of tying the ribbons into a perfect bow, but there is so much good stuff going on that maybe I HEART BROKEN that it had to end at all.
First, let me say that new comer Lou Taylor Pucci as Thumbsucker Justin Cobb really carried the film with a subtle, nuanced performance, resisting the urge to overact. There was quite a connection with his mother, Audrey Cobb (Tilda Swinton). I'll get to that later, but there seemed to be not only a physical resemblance, but they were also connected on some kind of mental/spiritual plane as well--in spite of some inappropriate and embarrassing behavior on Audrey's part. Even their father, Mike Cobb (Vincent D'Onofrio) comments at one point that he "never knows what you two are thinking." I, however, know exactly what he was thinking; that they were two peas in a pod.
The plot is basically a coming of age saga, but it takes so many twists and turns--there's the thumbsucking; hypnosis from his orthodontist, Dr. Perry Lyman (Keanu Reeves); but then there is Ritalin, which leads to him becoming a master debater; and tied up with that there is his first love Rebecca (Kelli Garner), first heart break; and worries that his mother may be having an affair with popular actor Matt Schramm (Benjamin Bratt), or at the very least concern that she is extremely unhappy in her marriage, and there are lots of problems relating to his father, an ex jock bitter about the athletic career he might have had, who puts a lot of pressure on him to be a winner; and then finally, there is him trying to get into college, not to mention the dream sequences. Through all the ch-ch-ch-ch-changes that Justin Cobb goes through, Lou Taylor Pucci is right there.
Audrey Cobb wants to enter a contest to win a dream date with Matt Schramm. She enlists the aid of Justin, who up until now has been her co-conspirator, but she has crossed a line and he just doesn't feel comfortable helping her write an essay on why her mother, who is married to her father, should go on a dream date with a cheesy actor, nor does he enjoy helping her choose a seductive outfit for the photo, especially when he has to help her zip it up from the back. Kids. Go figure. Tilda Swinton relishes these kinds of complicated roles, and the Oscar winning actress is fabulous here, as the part really suits her quirky brand of talent.
Dr. Perry Lyman is Justin's orthodontist, but he thinks of himself as more than that, a shaman, perhaps, and indeed, sensing that Justin is a thumbsucker, he tries some very unorthodox treatment. It is all very hippy-dippy, even lighting incense, and having Justin gaze at the moon in his wolf painting while he puts him into a hypnotic trance. He suggests that Justin choose a power animal to be his protector and solace whenever he feels anxious or afraid.
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Justin Cobb: What's your power animal?
Dr. Perry Lyman: That's personal.
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Keanu Reeves is the perfect choice to play Dr. Perry Lyman. There was recently a photo series of Mr. Reeves in various roles, and through them all he maintained that stone face. Who better to play Klaatu in the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still? Gort! Klaatu barada nikto! Stone-faced Reeves plays his Dr. Lyman part, but it is also a very clever self parody of the kind of roles he plays. He gives Justin a post-hypnotic suggestion that makes his thumb taste like Echinacea.
He stops sucking his thumb, but without thumbsucking all his pressures build and he has no outlet. He is like Linus denied his security blanket. He starts acting out and the school counselor prescribes Ritalin. This seems to help--at first. He reads Moby Dick in a single night, and then, in the debating team which he only joined to get close to Rebecca, he starts to excel, becoming a master debater.
Mr. Geary (Vince Vaughn) is pleased that his youthful ward has stepped up to the plate now that Rebecca has left the Debate Club. Indeed, Justin was so smitten by Rebecca that he wouldn't even debate her. He agreed with her, causing Mr. Geary to say, 'this is Debate Club, not Agree Club.' Vince Vaughn has created a great character. You just know he is gay, but he keeps it well hidden. It is like a parody of a kind of teacher who wants to help his students achieve their full potential, especially if that includes sleep overs while competing in State Wide Debate Matches. As Justin becomes a force to reckon with on the Debate scene, he crosses over the line, winning at any cost. Besides, the Ritalin is starting to catch up to him. His lucid and well thought out arguments are starting to dissolve into meaningless gibberish. Mr. Geary is only too happy to throw him under the bus, as he has become a liability and a threat to his career in academia, for instance if that six pack he gave the team to unwind with becomes public knowledge, his teaching career would be toast.
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Mr. Geary: It's my professional opinion that you've become a monster.
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Justin's little brother, Joel Cobb (Chase Offerle), has a beef with him too. It seems with all his teen trauma drama, it leaves little room for him to chase off his own heebie jeebies:
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Joel Cobb: You ever think maybe you're so busy being weird, that I have to step up and be normal?
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Vincent D'Onofrio perhaps doesn't have the plum role, since he is almost the heavy in the oedipal drama that is Thumbsucker. Still, though he isn't the most sympathetic character, and has to be the enforcer of the 'No Thumb Sucking Zone' he has his own issues, and even dumb jocks sometimes earn our sympathy if their leg is broken and a promising career in athletics is struck down in its prime. Once we get to know Mike, we are sorry to see him go. Likewise, he to Justin:
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Mike Cobb: [on hearing Justin's going away to college] I was just... getting used to you.
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On the other end of the spectrum, Benjamin Bratt has perhaps the best role of all, besides the leading man slot. Maybe he is the leading man, at least with regards to Audrey Cobb. But what I like about Bratt is he gets to do a parody of himself, as the empathetic police officer in TV cop shows who is so politically correct and sensitive to the diverse nature of the population he has promised to protect and serve. But then, Bratt (or Schramm, the Bratt parody he plays) shows his all too human side, a hopeless drug addict. When he tries to sneak his stash into rehab it results in an all too embarrassing incident. Hey, who hasn't been there? Anyway, after all the cheesy roles he's played, all the 'man sandwich' Razzie award winning boyfriends, this is his chance to skewer our perceptions of him and show his human frailty and vulnerability. Bravo for Benjamin Bratt. It's all about the Benjamin.
Kelli Garner gave perhaps the best performance of all. I've saved the best for last. Sometimes as she read her lines, she was kind of like the mature beyond her years would be girlfriend if only she didn't see through your immaturity, but perhaps a little two-dimensional, burdened as she was with the weight of the script's aspiration for profundity. But when she would just give her little winks and those flirtatious facial expressions, she was totally in character. A revelation was she. Also, she was the main and completely understandable reason why I HEART BROKEN. Hey, I just want to experiment with you. Who hasn't been there?
One more thing: the music is well integrated into the whole cinematic Thumbsucker experience, and there are some songs by the late Elliot Smith that seem as if they were composed especially for Thumbsucker, but that is preposterous, because he was dead (of suicide?) long before this film was made.
I didn't think I was going to like Thumbsucker, but I was so very wrong. I mean, a movie about a guy who can't stop sucking his thumb? But it was so well done, and really, more about the crazy pressure of life, felt most acutely when we are going through a hormone addled adolescence. Who hasn't been there?
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Dr. Perry Lyman: There's only so much I can do with traditional orthodontics. Justin, are you ready to let go of your thumb?
Justin Cobb: Why are you talking like that?
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LOU TAYLOR PUCCI
The Chumscrubber (2005) .... Lee
... aka Glück in kleinen Dosen (Germany) [When Lou Taylor Pucci isn't sucking thumbs, he's scrubbing chums]
TILDA SWINTON
Michael Clayton (2007) .... Karen Crowder (Oscar winner)
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) .... White Witch
Adaptation. (2002) .... Valerie Thomas
Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998) .... Muriel Belcher
Female Perversions (1996) .... Eve Stephens
Wittgenstein (1993) .... Lady Ottoline Morrell
Caravaggio (1986) .... Lena
VINCENT D'ONOFRIO
The Salton Sea (2002) .... Pooh-Bear
The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (2002) .... Father Casey
Bark! (2002) .... Dr. Malcolm
Impostor (2001) .... Hathaway
Chelsea Walls (2001) .... Frank
The Cell (2000) .... Carl Stargher
Steal This Movie (2000) .... Abbie Hoffman
Strange Days (1995) .... Burton Steckler
Ed Wood (1994) .... Orson Welles
The Player (1992) .... David Kahane
JFK (1991) .... Bill Newman
Naked Tango (1991) .... Cholo
Mystic Pizza (1988) (as Vincent Phillip D'Onofrio) .... Bill
Full Metal Jacket (1987) .... Pvt. Pyle
KEANU REEVES
A Scanner Darkly (2006) .... Bob Arctor
Something's Gotta Give (2003) .... Julian Mercer
The Matrix (1999) .... Neo
Johnny Mnemonic (1995) .... Johnny Mnemonic
My Own Private Idaho (1991) .... Scott Favor
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989) .... Ted Logan
Dangerous Liaisons (1988) .... Le Chevalier Raphael Danceny
River's Edge (1986) .... Matt
BENJAMIN BRATT
Catwoman (Widescreen Edition) (2004) .... Tom Lone
The Woodsman (2004) .... Carlos
Traffic (2000) .... Juan Obregón
Miss Congeniality (2000) .... Eric Matthews
The Next Best Thing (2000) .... Ben Cooper
The River Wild (1994) .... Ranger Johnny
KELLI GARNER
Lars and the Real Girl (2007) .... Margo
Normal Adolescent Behavior (2007) .... Billie
Return to Rajapur (2006) .... Samantha Hartley
Dreamland (2006) .... Calista
Piggy Banks (2005) .... Archer
London (2005) .... Maya
The Youth in Us (2005) .... Alicia
The Aviator (2004) .... Faith Domergue
VINCE VAUGHN
Fred Claus (2007) .... Fred Claus
Into the Wild (2007) .... Wayne Westerberg
The Break-Up (2006) .... Gary Grobowski
Wedding Crashers - Unrated (Widescreen New Line Platinum Series) (2005) .... Jeremy Grey
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) .... Eddie
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) (uncredited) .... Wes Mantooth
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004) .... Peter La Fleur
Old School (2003) .... Bernard 'Beanie' Campbell
Made (2001) .... Ricky Slade
The Cell (2000) .... Peter Novak
South of Heaven, West of Hell (2000) .... Taylor Henry
Psycho (1998) .... Norman Bates
Clay Pigeons (1998) .... Lester Long
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) .... Nick Van Owen
Swingers (1996) .... Trent Walker
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Mr. Geary: Did you see the girls out there?
Justin Cobb: Yeah.
Mr. Geary: Okay, go round 'em up. Bring 'em in here.
Justin Cobb: [hesitant] ... Men's room.
Mr. Geary: [nodding] That's okay, I'm a teacher, I'm a teacher.
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