Azazel Jacobs’ Terri is a bittersweet coming of age story of passable interest but no great distinction. The title character is a sweet, simple soul for whom one wishes only good things, and one spends much of the movie actively dreading something terrible that’s bound to happen to one of nature’s kind hearts and good souls. Surprisingly, we’re spared that, but the story that we are told works only fitfully, the interesting stuff being defiantly outweighed by the indifferent filler.
Terri (Blu-ray)
Directed by Azazel Jacobs
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Year: 2011
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 1080p AVC codec
Running Time: 105 minutes
Rating: R
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English
Subtitles: SDH, Spanish
Region: A
MSRP: $29.99
Release Date: October 11, 2011
Review Date: October 10, 2011
The Film
3/5
Terri Thompson (Jacob Wysocki) is an overweight teenager abandoned by both his father and mother and living with an uncle (Creed Bratton) who’s on the verge of senility. He’s definitely a lone wolf choosing to wear pajamas to school because they’re comfortable and never bothering with things like school schedules or becoming a slave to the school bell. Assistant principal Mr. Fitzgerald (John C. Reilly), who had been an outcast in high school himself, has made a half dozen of the school’s misfits his special projects to let them know there is someone who cares about their well being. Terri responds to Mr. Fitzgerald but becomes hurt when he finds out the administrator uses the same spiel with all of his “special projects.” Terri also befriends fellow outcasts Chad (Bridger Zadina), a hair puller, and Heather (Olivia Crocicchia), who was caught in home ec class with a boy’s hand up her dress. All of them relish being found worthy by someone, but their inexperience in dealing with others makes social encounters between them fraught with problems about limit pushing and appropriate first steps toward sexual investigation.
Patrick deWitt’s screenplay and Azazel Jacobs’ direction do fine in establishing the peculiar world that is today’s high school with the constant putdowns from fellow students and insensitive teachers. And with the character of Terri, they’ve created a person both bold and timid, a perfect mixture of childish exuberance (he trips out over a falcon feasting on the dead mice he catches in his attic and leaves for it to eat) and innate timidity over almost any interpersonal communication at school (though he can hold his own with adults without resorting to sarcasm or sneers, unusual for a movie about high schoolers in this century). His gentle giant stature at school and at home isn’t played for easy laughs either, much to the writer’s and director’s credit. The comedy is of a gentler sort as Terri and Mr. Fitzgerald bond over certain things (he had a terrible acne problem as a teen) and deal honestly with one another throughout the movie making their scenes together the best ones in the movie. Terri’s “romantic” encounter with the sexually precocious Heather, fueled by booze and some of his uncle’s seizure pills, doesn’t play out exactly the way one would think (potty-mouthed Chad’s horning in on the party adds another gruesome dimension to the sequence) and leaves the last third of the film with a major sequence that seems underwritten and anticlimactic. Had that scene worked a little better, the film would have felt more revelatory about misfits finding their own place within the social structure.
Jacob Wysocki is certainly aces as Terri full of open-faced humility and genuine appeal as the outcast learns there is a place for him and friends for him to be with. John C. Reilly seems very real as the administrator trying to make a difference and, in his own way, possessed with the same kind of good heartedness as Terri – man and child mirror images of one another. Bridger Zadina pushes too hard as the rebellious Chad and Olivia Crocicchia’s Heather likewise seems too old for the company she’s keeping. Creed Bratton gets to act the pieces out of Uncle James whose mood swings and flights from reality add some innocent humor and warmth to all of the home scenes (Terri’s gentle acceptance of and assistence with his uncle’s condition adds further heartbreaking niceness to his resume). Justin Prentice and Curtiss Frisle have the jerky school bully thing down pat.
Video Quality
4/5
The film is presented in its theatrical 1.85:1 aspect ratio and is offered in 1080p resolution using the AVC codec. Sharpness is the disappointing aspect to this transfer as the erratic focus lends most scenes a vivid clarity but occasional scenes an odd softness. Color saturation levels stay consistent, and flesh tones are natural. Black levels, however, are none too exemplary with some details crushed in shadows on occasion. The film has been divided into 24 chapters.
Audio Quality
4/5
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound mix offers a subtle surround environment for much of the movie. There is some use of directionalized sounds in various channels at appropriate moments (those mice getting snapped up in traps in the attic, office sounds at school), and Mandy Hoffman’s music including a haunting theme for the movie gets a nice placement throughout the soundfield. Dialogue has been well recorded and resides in the center channel.
Special Features
2/5
All of the video features are presented in 1080p.
“A Look Inside Terri” is a 10 ½-minute promotional featurette with director Azazel Jacobs explaining the differences between this film and his last one Momma’s Man, his casting of the movie, and his methods of working on the set. Star Jacob Wysocki also makes some comments about his work on the project.
There are three deleted scenes which have been combined into a 7 ¾-minute montage.
The disc features promo trailers for Brand New Day and Skateland.
In Conclusion
3/5 (not an average)
Terri is a tender, sensitive coming of age story, somewhat different in tone and texture from the usual teen comedy-drama. Fine acting from the stars makes this good-hearted, well meaning film one that may find a welcome response on home video.
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC
