21 Going on 11

Rating: 6/10 (13 May 2008)

If I was eleven years old, there's a good chance I would have loved Robert Luketic's 21. But, unfortunately for the last 123 minutes of my life, the eleven year old kid is all grown up. Watching this movie I got the feeling it was Australian director Luketic's first film, but after fact checking I was a little shocked to see it was his fourth. Based on 21's steady parade of "seen it all before" it's obvious he hasn't learned much in his four trips to the helm, unless of course his intent is to recycle every film-making cliché available. It's not that 21 was painful to watch, it actually is entertaining, but it begs one very real question: does Luketic have an original idea in his head?
Things start off with the introduction of Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess), whom everyone refers to as "the smartest guy they know." Ben, despite being the smartest guy everyone knows, is stumped at how to come up with the 300 grand he needs to attend Harvard med school. Ben's hail mary is the Robinson scholarship, although the one thing keeping him from qualifying is a lack of real life experience -- can you guess where Ben finds it? I'll give you a hint: there's about 110 minutes of movie left.
The problem with this setup is, while it does a great job providing us with a (requisite) dilemma, it spoils the (requisite) 3rd act twists. I guess the screenwriters felt sacrificing surprise was a small price to pay to establish Ben's motivation for getting involved with Prof. Micky Rosa's (Kevin Spacey) ragtag band of genius card counters. Either that, or they assumed the audience would completely and conveniently forget about the scholarship.
While most young filmmakers worth their salt reference Welles, Godard, Fuller, Scorsese and other screen giants in their films, Luketic establishes very early into 21 his major influences are the makers of cookie cutter 1980's teen dramas. Case in point: the entrance of Ben's love interest Jill Taylor (Kate Bosworth). As we cut to the POV of Ben and his friends, we cut to an over-cranked, slow-motion shot of Taylor striding across the gym floor. The shot wouldn't be complete without the hit-you-over-the-head musical cue, and Luketic does not disappoint. The only thing missing was a wind machine tussling her golden locks.
This shot is so cliché that even spoofs of it have become cliché. Perhaps Luketic missed the memo that this shot was officially retired after Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Remember the shot of Phoebe Cates, bikini clad and dripping wet, rising out of the swimming pool with nothing but the Cars "Moving in Stereo" blasting across the soundtrack? Even Phoebe was smart enough to know her career had plateaued, prompting her to disappear into retirement/motherhood not long after. On another tangent, let me ask you this: if not one hockey player in the NHL has the arrogance (or ignorance) to don the number 99, what possesses Luketic to think he has the right to regurgitate this tired cliché of a shot?
Throughout the movie, Luketic pulls out all the stops: voice over narration, flashbacks, montage sequences, time lapses, match dissolves, pop zooms, etc. His film-making is very democratic in the sense he refuses to leave anyone confused about what is going on. In other words, this is idiot proof film-making -- every idiot will be able to follow what's going on. The result: every nuance, every gesture, every raised eyebrow, every nod is shot in super slow motion and smash cut to an accompanying extreme close up. Luketic simply refuses to let subtlety get in the way of slapping the viewer across the face with what is going on. Even the product placement in 21 is shameless and overt, as evidenced in the bar scene when Ben orders "two BUD LIGHTS" and then nails his mark as he perfectly positions the bottle's labels within the camera's line of sight. I feel sorry for the actors in the film since every reaction demanded of them is telegraphed with utter disdain for realism. Watching 21 I could imagine Luketic redirecting his actors: "can you do it again, but make it bigger this time." I'm at a loss to explain why Spacey would even sign on to play a character that is practically a parody of his previous work. I found it really hard not to snicker as he dispensed rat-tat-tat, yoda-like pez of wisdom.
There's no question 21 is a paint by numbers affair, yet despite being formulaic and predictable, it somehow manages to be entertaining enough to not walk out of. The source material is definitely fascinating and the eye candy is worthy of most hip-hop music videos, but unless you are eleven years old, you can't excuse 21 for its bluntness. I mean really, are MIT geniuses really so stupid to think the same set of deliberate hand signals are never going to get detected? And if you do manage to stay through to the end, you will be witness to one of the most poorly directed chase scenes ever committed to celluloid.
21 ends with a very literal soundtrack cue that is as on-the-nose as the Rolling Stones' track is infamous for being overused: you can't always get what you want. No sir, you sure can't.
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