Jamie Bell may have conquered Hollywood as a teenager, but this ironic and mildly subversive comedy gives him little chance to prove his worth.
The Billy Elliot star plays Dean, the school loner in a suburban town where Stepford-type parents raise their potentially troublesome kids on Ritalin and video games.
When he finds his best friend hanged, he doesn't even bother to tell his mother (Glenn Close) since she's busy organising a cocktail party.
Then there's a kidnapping involving the school bully (Justin Chatwin) and the kidnapped boy's mother is also too busy to do much about it. Somehow or other, it's up to Dean to sort things out.
Arie Posin's film clearly belongs to the well-worn genre of American suburban disaffection, but it's neither sharp nor funny enough to get very high up the pecking order.
Bell's presence, however, is a distinct plus, even if the tone of the whole thing is fatally uneven.
The Chumscrubber
Cert: 15
