Rock me like a mild breeze

The Rocker is a prime example of what happens when talented people are paired with utterly pedestrian material. This story of an aging rocker (more of a “never-been” than a “has-been”) who finds redemption by joining his nephew’s garage band (called A.D.D.), is just plain uneven. Many of the performances, and some of the writing, are sharp and memorable, but this cannot erase the fact that much of the story is derivative and, worse, a bit boring.
Rainn Wilson plays the eponymous rocker (real name Robert 'Fish' Fishman) with a great combination of earnestness, self-delusion and bizarre-itude unlikely to be conjured by another performer. This role gives Wilson a chance to prove that he does not have to play idiosyncratic second banana roles on the big screen (My Super Ex-Girlfriend was not worthy of his talents). Wilson carries a unique energy that is far more nuanced than say Will Farrell or even Jack Black. Killer work is also put in by Jason Sudekis (whose turn as the band’s manager takes being a douchebag to unexplored and hilarious heights) and Christina Applegate as the mother of A.D.D.s frontman (Applegate needs to recognized as a great comedic performer by everyone, right now).

The teens in the movie, however, don’t quite hold up their end of the film. Emma Stone (Superbad) is a promising young star but this is her least interesting performance to date. Josh Gad plays Fish’s nephew with a certain degree of comic grace but has inserted too many Jonah Hill-isms to make it an original work. The least intriguing of these young actors, Teddy Gieger, gets the most to work with as the band’s dreamy/brooding lead singer. The trouble is Geiger fails to brood or to make us dream about him even a little.

Beyond the performances, The Rocker feels structurally uneven as well. The story of A.D.D. feels like something that didn’t pass muster at Nickelodeon so a more adult comedy was superimposed on top of it. The great writing in the film’s stands out because it is surrounded by so much that borders on dreck. It is fashionable these days to put a certain degree of heart into Hollywood comedies (a trend that does not necessarily need to be endorsed). The Rocker's attempt at pathos seems so contrived (the audience can feel themselves entering a “touching” scene) it makes one yearn for the tenderness of even School of Rock. As with many films that surround fictional bands, the music is so lame that the notion of the group making it big is simply not believable.

So Rainn Wilson will have to wait a bit longer before he gets his breakout picture. If you want a completely satisfying movie, you will have to wait a bit longer as well.