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June 2, 2005. A small cinema in Red Bank, New Jersey. Dozens of people are gathered out on the sidewalk, chatting. Someone bums a cigarette from a passerby. A woman from a non-profit group solicits donations. A few yuppie shoppers stroll by on their way to their Lincoln Navigator, wondering what all the fuss is about.

The occasion was the screening of a small independent film called Thumbsucker, directed by a fellow named Mike Mills. Not the Mike Mills from legendary rock band R.E.M.; just some guy with a very short resume who shares a name with someone famous. A screening for such a tiny picture isn’t likely to garner much excitement, especially from someone few had ever heard of, but in this case the Clearview Cinema – a mere block or so from a comic book store owned by a certain famous Red Bank native who goes by the name “Smith” – was abuzz.

The buzz came from the attendees. They were about to watch a school friend, or a family member, or for one family, a son, suck his thumb on camera ... and in the process, take a major step towards what may well end up being film stardom. Lou Taylor Pucci was the object of their affections on the big screen in the role of Justin Cobb, the thumbsucker in question.

Pucci is young. The entire original Star Wars trilogy was filmed, released and conquered the world before he was even born. He wears his hair long and has large, expressive eyes. In some photos, he has something of a young Johnny Depp look going on. If it seems as if he was made for films, well, he wasn’t. He didn’t want to be on stage and screen, after all… at least not at first; but at around 10, his aunt Cindy got him involved in community theater. By 12, he was on Broadway. And suddenly, as Pucci told a few months ago, he’s getting film roles and winning awards.

It’s not the usual career trajectory, but then the usual career trajectory does not have you in the staring role of a film with Keanu Reeves, Vince Vaughn, Tilda Swinton and Vincent D'Onofrio, either… unless you’re Lou Taylor Pucci.

Enter Thumbsucker.

Justin Cobb is in many ways your typical 17-year-old boy. He’s awkward, unsure of himself, his family situation is a little uncomfortable, and he doesn’t really know his place in the world. Oh. And he sucks his thumb.

That’s the hook – a young man copes with the confusion and embarrassment of a childlike habit he just can’t break – but the quirky, off-kilter nature of that hook is a little misleading, because at its heart, Thumbsucker is about coming of age and coming to grips with your place in the world. The thumb sucking, in many ways, represents the battle with self we all experience during those crucial years going into adulthood.

Like all 17-year-olds, Justin struggles through the relationships he has and those he wishes he had. Rebecca (Kelli Garner) is a sweet, innocent young girl on whom he has a crush, a crush Justin has a hard time telling her about, and an even harder time pursuing thanks to his thumb sucking habit. The potential for affections from this girl does little to help him cope with his thumb sucking. He finds no solace at home, where his stressed out mother, Audrey Cobb (Tilda Swinton), and his distant father, Mike Cobb (Vincent D'Onofrio), can’t find peace in their marriage or understanding of their son’s habit. We follow Justin as he timidly pursues Rebecca, stumbling here, succeeding there; and as he tries to navigate the minefield that is his family, with a mother longing for something more and a father longing for a more masculine son.

The cast is almost across the board outstanding, carrying the film through a script that doesn’t always know what it wants to be. Vince Vaughn’s turn as Mr. Geary, Justin’s teacher, is excellent; Garner’s Rebecca is convincing both as the sweet girl we first meet and the much changed girl at film’s end; D'Onofrio smolders with repressed love, disappointment and distance in a performance that is wonderfully coiled and tense; and Swinton takes every scene she is in and owns it completely in the film’s best single performance, layered with loss and sadness and those glimmers of tenuous hope only a mother can have. Even Benjamin Bratt, in a small role as TV actor Matt Schramm, turns in a nice performance. Only Keanu Reeves feels out of place in the role of Perry Lyman, Justin’s surreal therapist-by-way-of-dentist.

Of course, the most important role is Pucci’s, and Pucci delivers. He shows the beginnings of a broad expressive range, convincingly awkward and confused when it’s called for, and self-assured when his time comes. He makes his character live and breathe. You can feel that yes, this is a teenager who just doesn’t understand what the hell is going on around him. He manages to hit the right notes throughout the film, convincing the audience that Justin Cobb truly did what every awkward teenager must do in movies – transform himself to someone new.

If the cast is consistent across the board, the script and direction is less confident and less focused. Thumbsucker is well shot and never looks bad, and when Mills makes a good decision, it’s often an excellent one. Scenes of emotional import can stir the heart. We sometimes feel as if we’re peering into the window of the troubled house next door, uncomfortable about watching the family’s slow-burning meltdown but captivated by the sight. Yet other times we’re left wondering if we’re meant to take what we see seriously. That’s where the problem comes in. The film can't decide if it wants to be a gut-wrenching drama or a quirky, semi-surreal look into the mind of a teenage boy. We shift from scenes of true drama to offbeat sideshow (almost any scene with Reeves falls into the latter category). One moment a mother and father are discussing their son’s distressing habit and what it means for the boy, revealing the distance between the couple and the father’s inability to feel love; the next we’re watching as four tons of trash fall from the sky onto a hapless victim, who crawls out from under the pile dazed and confused. One moment we watch as Pucci coaxes out the conflicted emotions Justin feels, torn between hating his thumb sucking and finding comfort in it; the next we’re seeing a pastel colored dream sequence that pulls us out of the well-painted reality Mills establishes. Mr. Mills, make up your mind. The lack of focus is distracting and detracts from the otherwise compelling familial drama that unfolds.

Still, as much as Thumbsucker is being marketed as yet another quirky little indie film, it’s not. At least, the best of what it has to offer is not. When it goes quirky it goes wrong, but when it stays focused on straight drama it’s quite good indeed. For both Mills and Pucci, this is not a start to be embarrassed about. It’s a nice little film about a subject done many times before, carried by a very strong cast, a good visual look and a superb, always appropriate soundtrack. Because of its lack of focus, it won’t make many “Best Of” lists at the end of the year, but for the solid acting alone it’s probably worth a viewing. At the very least, you’ll be able to say you saw Lou Taylor Pucci “back when no one knew who he was.”

Official Thumbsucker website