>>REVIEW
THE CHUMSCRUBBER
CO-WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY Arie Posic
2006, Dreamworks
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Behind every picket fence and within every SUV is a dysfunctional family falling apart at the seams. So it is in The Chumscrubber, anyway, the newest cinematic attempt to reveal the dark undercurrents pulsing through our country’s quietest and quaintest suburbs.
Set in a wealthy condo development in anywhere U.S.A., The Chumscrubber follows a bizarre kidnapping that spins out of control and inadvertently causes the lives of a group of neighbours – kids and parents – to cross. Despite a stellar cast (Ralph Fiennes, Jamie Bell and Glenn Close are just some of the talented thespians on board) and an admirable attempt at dark satire, the story is yet another parable about parents who don’t listen and kids who need to be heard.
Although The Chumscrubber tries to paint itself as a kind of American Beauty homage to the fierce indifference and miscommunication that plague upper middle-class white families, the film is probably more indebted to The Breakfast Club. Where John Hughes’s classic of adolescent frustration saw its cast of teenagers air their gripes through less dramatic ways – smoking pot and good old-fashioned verbal therapy – the kids in The Chumscrubber are pulled to more violent extremes. In the age of Columbine and Grand Theft Auto, everything seems to turn to our growing fascination with violence. The kids – unsupervised, overmedicated and desperately alone – seemingly have their hands on the trigger at all times here. And, while their problems are the same as the ones that plagued Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson and company two decades ago, the way to work them out has changed.
When the high school’s resident drug dealer hangs himself, a trio of classmates, including the resident bully (Justin Chatwin) band together and try to blackmail the depressed but grounded Dean. Trying to get their hands on a bag of pills left behind by his recently deceased friend, the bullies tell Dean that he needs to deliver the goods or they’re going to hurt his little brother, who they’ve supposedly kidnapped.
The situation, of course, spirals out of control and the clueless parents involved – played by Rita Wilson, John Heard, Carrie-Anne Moss and William Fichtner, among others – become embroiled in a seemingly silly game that reaches an unfortunate head.
Although The Chumscrubber has an effective motif – the title refers to a violent video game played throughout in which a headless zombie character called The Chumscrubber wanders a post-apocalyptic Earth killing people with his dismembered skull – the film never comments on whether ultra-violent video games play a role in shaping the mentalities and tendencies of today’s teens.
Most problematically, the parents in the film, who all display incomprehensible levels of indifference towards their children, are impossible to relate to or empathize with. Consequently, instead of creating characters who are complex, and neither entirely reprehensible nor entirely innocent, The Chumscrubber relies on overwrought symbolism. In one recurring scenario, Close’s unhinged mother (her son is the one who killed himself) shows up at the doorsteps of her neighbours returning cleaned pots from edible donations they’ve never made. As Close’s character babbles on desperately and incoherently about the nice deed no one has actually performed – highlighting the fact that no one in the film cares as much as they need to – the worst aspects of The Chumscrubber are laid bare. The film awkwardly spoon-feeds the audience its message instead of effectively driving it home. |
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