Synopsis
An overweight social misfit, Terri Thompson (Jacob Wysocki), is the lone caretaker and guardian for his elderly Uncle James (Bratton). While struggling to find acceptance in school, Terri finds refuge in the company of his shy but pretty classmate Heather (Olivia Crocicchia, “Rescue Me”). In an effort to bring Terri out of his awkward pajama-wearing shell, his off-beat high school principal, Mr. Fitzgerland (Reilly) takes Terri under his wing to distract himself from his own painful divorce. What emerges is a lesson on growing pains for both of them, and learning to find a reason to spread their wings and fly.
Terri is a subtle movie. It doesn’t quite reach the wackiness of a Napoleon Dynamite, but it definitely doesn’t dip through the depressing digs of a drama. Somewhere in the middle is where this movie lies. That’s okay, though, as it stays consistent with that feeling through out. There are times where you want to laugh, and there are times where you want to really feel bad for our main character. Ultimately, you go through the movie wondering where everything turns around. Surprisingly enough, things never turn around for Terri, which works out brilliantly for the story. I know what you’re thinking, “Really? That’s a good thing?” My answer to this is yes.
Terri is a character that is a complete outcast, and someone you probably knew in high school. He’s a person that doesn’t fit in with anyone’s group. Terri does his best to survive and takes the abuse along the way. Director and writer Azazel Jacobs makes sure that he simply doesn’t belong. His character is abused by kids, forced to grow up because of his ailing uncle (played by The Office‘s Creed Bratton — he gives a spectacular performance) and is more frustrated with the fact that he simply can’t blend in with any group. For all intents and purposes, Terri is lost. His frustration seems to surround the fact that he has no idea what his purpose in life is. So the better part of the film has Terri just surviving his day-to-day life. When things finally come to a halt, and he gets in trouble, he is sent to see Principal Fitzgerald (John C. Reilly). At this point in the film, Terri begins to realize his purpose in life, even after several more frustrating stops. By the end of the film, you fully understand, as well as Terri, what his purpose is in life; quite frankly, it’s one of the better endings to a film that I’ve seen.
Credit should be given to Wysocki for his solid performance. Also credit the director for making sure this entire story was even-tempered from start to finish. There were moments where Terri could have gone a different route, maybe something more violent, but Jacobs had a very solid vision of what he wanted this character to do. He was patient enough for the story to bloom properly, and used smaller stories to push the main character along. For example, when Heather Miles (played by Olivia Crocicchia) gets in trouble for doing a ‘dirty deed’ in class with another boy, Terri comes to the rescue to make sure she isn’t expelled. At this point this smaller insignificant story helps to shape who Terri is and what he does to find his purpose in life. There are several moments in the film like this that ultimately add up to who Terri truly is in life.
Again, subtle, yet powerful.
Are there any downers to the story? I think the beginning could have been a bit more organized. It didn’t firmly establish Terri’s ultimate goal in the film. It merely helped to establish what Terri goes through on a day-to-day basis. By the end of the film it all makes sense, but trying to get the film started really is tough. Once you get about 20 minutes into then you’re hooked, but the first 20 minutes can be really confusing.
Overall, it’s a good film.
As for the Blu-ray portion of the movie, it’s pretty solid. I think the drab look of the film provides nothing special to the quality of the high-definition. Much like Terri, the video quality doesn’t immediately stand out. There are moments, like the diner scene with Reilly and crew, where you can tell the transfer was done well, but ultimately the film didn’t reflect the high quality transfer all that great. There weren’t any grainy moments, no real artifacts or color banding; the film just simply didn’t improve with the quality of the HD. This is potentially the first film that I couldn’t pinpoint ‘pretty’ out of it. Still, the movie was clean, crisp and sharp.
As for the features, you get a featurette on the film and some deleted scenes. I’ve seen better movies that didn’t get this much, so it’s nice to see an indie film get some love. Good stuff, but would have died to see outtakes.