The Wackness

I rented and watched "The Wackness" yesterday and it was better than I expected it to be. I had heard it was about a drug dealing High School kid who befriends a loony shrink that buys weed from him, and that's a decent enough summary of the film I suppose but what the movie is really about at it's core is the magnitude and ambiguity of one's first love.

As a kid, I was certain I was "in love" with my first crush, Leslie Hill, in Ellington CT at the age of 9. I went so far as to compose a letter to her, at my father's insisting (you gotta just go for it man!), and suffered the inevitable humiliation of her ignoring me like a red-afroed leper in the halls shortly after that. The next one I recall being infatuated with was Vicki Green around the time of sixth grade, who's decision to dance with me at a school event led me to believe she was in fact madly in love with me, when in actuality she just "wanted to be friends". I was crushed of course, but rebounded quickly and soon went on to have my first real girlfriend, a sweet girl from my Grandmother's church named Erin. Those couple years Erin and I "dated"-neither one of us having money, a car, any real motivation other than to make out and fondle each other every chance we got-were some of the most intense, horrifying, pleasurable, scary, and magical days of my life. The constant uncertainty of when and if we'd be able to continue seeing each other, the battles with parents, the lies, the games, the petty jealousy and the lust...it was all so overwhelming yet so utterly gratifying. I remember when it was finally over, after having moved farther away and starting a new school, that I was certain I'd never feel the same way about another girl in my life, and I was right...for about 3 days.

The Wackness deals more with the later part of adolescence, but in terms of the main character portrayed it's apparent that it's definitely his first love, and it does a great job of expressing the complex and seesawing emotions that go along with discovering that person. There's a part of you that becomes so consumed and infatuated with them that you feel like you'll literally die if you can't see them even hours after you just left their side. This longing blends with a constant fear that they'll decide you're not really all that great and be dating some other schmo the next day-it's really amazing that anyone even survives their teens.

In the film, the male character "Shapiro" discovers his first love, and without ruining the movie for you, experiences much of what I have described above, but does so while being involved in a number of other personal dramas, as much of us likely were when we fell in love for the first time as an adolescent. It does an excellent job of showing the complexities of relationships as we get older, all the while remaining hopeful. The movie ends on a good note, or at least an inspiring one, and speaks a lot to the idea that being in love, even as a teenager, is so vital to what comes later in life. As many times as I had my heart broken way back then, and did the same to others a few times unfortunately, I wouldn't change it for anything. There's an intricate and requisite part of one's soul and character that can only be formed by having been in love in those early years, and it only solidifies once the pain of losing that love has been thoroughly felt.

The Wackness isn't a perfect movie but it's thoughtful and honest and not sugary sweet, and it will likely rekindle emotions from many years ago, which is usually a good thing. It's also not a "chick flick", but I defy anyone to watch it and not feel a connection to it's characters and message.