Signalling his aspirations beyond the small screen series that made him a star, Glee’s Chris Colfer makes his movie debut in Struck by Lightning, not just as an actor but as a writer as well. His protagonist, small-town high school senior Carson Phillips, mimics Colfer’s ambition in his endeavours to escape his humble beginnings; however, in the awkwardness and inelegance that await both Colfer and his screen surrogate, art continues imitates life.
Carson is precocious and unpopular, and therefore desperate to escape his dysfunctional family life with alcoholic mother (Allison Janney, Liberal Arts), absent father (Dermot Mulroney, The Grey) and ailing grandmother (Polly Bergen, TV’s Desperate Housewives) for the lofty confines of a prestigious college. Alas, his dream is not to be. The film opens with Carson’s sudden demise, with death caused by a lightning strike as per the film’s title. Thereafter, Struck by Lightning charts the character’s reflections upon his final months, from family dramas (involving his father’s new fiancé, played by Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks) to the disdain of his peers (Modern Family’s Sarah Hyland and Weeds’ Allie Grant among them).
With the narrative following the expected coming-of-age formula – complete with an unexpected friendship with fellow outsider, Malerie (Pitch Perfect’s Rebel Wilson), the support of an offbeat faculty member (The Office’s Angela Kinsey), and a subversive twist (a blackmail plot to ensure the school’s involvement in a literary magazine) – Colfer’s script offers a standard assemblage of teen tropes. Only a love interest is absent in the all-too-evident journey towards self-belief and self-confidence, as Carson endeavours to accept himself and those around him rather than forever fantasise about the future.
While the end result is technically competent and thematically confident, Struck by Lightning is pedestrian and prosaic. The uneasy combination of school satire and domestic dysfunction seems stolen from a raft of other, more interesting features, and even director Brian Dannelly’s background in the adolescent arena – with teen pregnancy comedy Saved! his only other feature credit – can’t redeem the film’s flat execution.
Performances are enthusiastic, particularly Colfer’s attempts to extend his range beyond Glee’s limited bounds, however his character’s effusive snideness does the actor few favours. Despite writing himself a showcase part, he – together with the remainder of the young cast – is easily out-played by Janney’s pill-popping mania and Hendricks’ understated sadness. The quip-heavy dialogue does little to compensate, mistaking obviousness for amusement. Despite the best of intentions, Struck by Lightning can’t escape its pride or predictable content.
Rating: 2 ½ stars out of 5
Struck by Lightning
Director: Brian Dannelly
USA, 2012, 90 min
Mardi Gras Film Festival
www.queerscreen.org.au
14 – 28 February
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