I read once that fear of public speaking was the greatest fear among Americans. In some ways, that sounds bit odd; is public speaking really feared more than death, disease car accidents, or poverty? However, if you’re anything Hal Hefner (Reece Thompson) the stuttering hero of Rocket Science that probably would be understandable.

            Hal is such a sad case that if he can barely tell you his name but somehow despite this he aspires to be a champion debater not that he ever would have ever came up with the idea of his own. He’s smitten with a crush for Virginia Ryerson (Anna Kendrick) who also goes by Ginny the runner-up in the states debate competitions the year previously. Ginny is Hal’s opposite, a bold orator who speaks so fast and ferociously she seems like she might be practicing to be the next Anne Coulter.

              She wants Hal to be her debate partner whether she actually sees something in him, is playing a cruel joke, or merely is the writer’s way of showing a contrast in communication styles is unclear. What is clear, is that Hal is smitten with her and sees performance in debate competitions as a way of earning her approval.  Unfortunately for Hal though after slow progress Ginny decides to drop Hal as a partner and a failure in his first debate makes his coach decide that he’s not fit for public speaking. What ensues afterwards is a series of sometimes funny and sometimes heartbreaking reactions on the part of Hal that climaxes in one of the strangest displays of public speaking you’ll ever see.

            In one sense Rocket Science is a goofy high school comedy in the vein of recent cult classics such as Napoleon Dynamite, and Rushmore.  Likes those movies it has a drab look, and the characters recite absurdist lines such as “I’m through with masturbating” with a clueless irony.   

Beneath it’s rather goofy exterior though there’s an almost fairy-tale-esque story about a boy looking for his voice both figuratively and literally. At the end of the movie there’s a brief hope given that Hal might some day find his voice which is almost reminiscent of Pinocchio’s earning to be a ‘real boy’.

To call Hal’s story a tragedy would probably be a misnomer it is definitely bleak in parts though he shares a rather awkward kiss with Ginny that as far as the audience can tell is the only sexual contact he has ever had, befriends Ginny’s neighbor who is a much younger boy that has a crush on her, gets overbearing advice from a thieving abusive older brother, and has a mom who seems to run hot and cold with lovers. In many ways though, Hal’s struggles and nervousness while exaggerated reflect the feelings of many high-schoolers.  

The lead actors do an excellent job Reece Thompson gives a knock-out performance as one of the most lovable losers to ever brace the silver screen his stutter is so convincing that at times it’s painful to watch. Anna Kendrick is so cold and calculating that she seems believable when she tells Hal that she’s not particularly fond of having personal opinions because they get in the way of her being able to debate effectively from both sides.

Writer-Director Jeffery Blitz does an outstanding job with his first script providing both insightfulness and humor. Rocket Science unfortunately though is too painful to be a truly funny film even though it has several very funny moments and too weird to be taken too seriously despite its keen social insights resulting in a film that much like its hero has trouble finding its voice.

“Demons are only demons till you shine light on them and then they are merely befuddled scared creatures.”

“Knowledge brings light to all things”

“On the last day, Jesus will say to those on His right hand, "Come, enter the Kingdom. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was sick and you visited me." Then Jesus will turn to those on His left hand and say, "Depart from me because I was hungry and you did not feed me, I was thirsty and you did not give me to drink, I was sick and you did not visit me." These will ask Him, "When did we see You hungry, or thirsty or sick and did not come to Your help?" And Jesus will answer them, "Whatever you neglected to do unto one of these least of these, you neglected to do unto Me!"”

I was reading over an article on Mother Teresa in Time magazine(http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1655720,00.html ) about how she had, had a crisis of faith for several years. In one sense it was amazing to hear how someone who had walked with God and whose faith seemed apparent even to non-believers had felt such a spiritual longing. On another hand though Mother Teresa’s crisis of faith more than any other possibly reminded of the story of Elijah in the Old Testament how he looked for God in the whirlwind, and tornado but then found in the simple small voice. Too many times in our life as Christians we look for God in the spiritually phenomenal and elegant but more often he’s found in the people we see day to day or in the beauty of nature or in a provoking piece of art. I’m reminded in thinking of this of the scriptural passage in which Jesus said “What ever you did for the least of these you did it for me.”

The other thought that came to mind while reading the above mentioned article was a reminder of my own crisis of faith that occurred a few years ago around the time I was eighteen. I imagine that such a process is a natural one and part of any thoughtful person’s walk of faith. Like most irrational thoughts it was motivated by an extreme fear that was not only illogical but also very counterproductive. The reason it probably scared me to think of a universe without God in it is that I had never considered the idea of a godless universe outside of the context of religion. Too often as Christians when we speak of the concept of atheism we generally refer to it either as being a state of hopelessness or amorality both of which are accurate within the context of a religious mind as anyone who has ever read some of Darwin’s fears about the social implication of theories could tell you.

Considering the concept of a Godless universe from a pragmatic standpoint though I found that even if theoretically there was no God, (for record having listened and read a fair number of well educated atheists and see no such evidence) I probably would not change the way I live my life very much. Christianity teaches humans to view their lives in a cosmic sense which is perfectly fine if you are asking a question like where did I come from or what happens when I die? However it muddles the waters considerably when asking pragmatic philosophical questions such as it important that I go to church on Sundays? Which are answered much better on a practical and personal level. A universal mindset would say that one would go to church if they believed in God or if they thought the Bible was true. Those are very difficult questions to answer at times though and ultimately none of us will ever truly know the answers to them.

Perhaps the better question to ask would concerning the benefits of spiritual practice would be more personal ones such as do I feel comforted when I pray? Or do I sense peace when I sing a hymn? Or does my church family provide for my social needs? The point is not that universal questions are not important or that they have no place in religion but that maybe simple questions provide a better language to evaluate whether one should be religious in a formal sense or not.