Starts September 29
Original language: English
Up to his senior year 17-year old George (Highmore) masters ‘the art of getting by’. He refuses politely but stubbornly to do his assignments or participate voluntarily in class: ‘You live alone, you die alone – everything in-between is an illusion’ is how he justifies not applying himself. He is intelligent, sensitive and insightful and that’s why his unusually well meaning teachers at a NYC prep school will give him one very last chance to graduate. Relationships don’t figure in his fatalistic view either. But ‘life happens’.
Sally (Roberts), a beautiful and outgoing classmate befriends him; he falls for her but is scared to death to let her know or fight for her when he should. What this self-described ‘Teflon-slacker’ - immune to shrinks, Retilin or tutors - needs, are a few wake-up calls to get him out of this funk. The desire to be true to himself paralyzes him but also makes him feel kind of superior in a narcissistic way. Obviously he feels a kinship to Holden Caulfield in Catcher in the Rye - a book that seems to be a little bit too demonstrative his constant companion: a ‘bumper-sticker’ and a cry for help. Parallels to Mike Nichols The Graduate come to mind as well, where a young man after finishing college refuses to fulfill anybody’s but his own expectation, and once he has found out what that might be, becomes cautiously optimistic about his future.
Director/Script: Gavin Wiesen, With: Freddie Highmore, Emma Roberts, Michael Angarano, Blair Underwood, Rita Wilson