Director: Brian Dannelly
Stars: Chris Colfer, Rebel Wilson, Allison Janney, Dermot Mulroney, Robbie Amell, Christina Hendricks
A frustrated high schooler is trying to bribe his fellow students into contributing to a literary magazine so that he can get into the school of his dreams.
Written and starring Glee‘s Chris Colfer, I found Struck by Lightning lacking in a few areas. There’s a term in fiction called ‘Mary-Sue’, which is where an author puts themselves in the story and their character is better and amazing and has all the answers. I feel there’s a bit of that going on here as Carson is a really unlikeable person. He’s bitter, self-centered, and doesn’t even try to connect with the people around him. As far as he’s concerned they don’t mean anything unless they meet his lofty standards.
The other people in the town are declared to be wastrels and airheads, but they actually seem like reasonable people, it’s just that they have a different outlook on things than Carson. Where he sees his life beginning after high school they’re more intent on enjoying the moments as they come to them. Despite this I did have some sympathy for Carson because of a couple of things his parents did, and there were touching moments between him and his grandmother.
Struck by Lightning features appearances from familiar faces yet most of the supporting characters aren’t anything other than clichés, and although it’s a little under ninety minutes there were parts of the film that dragged. However, I do think there are a lot of people that will enjoy this immensely, but it’s just not for me.
