Nice effects though.

Don't Believe the Hype

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

"Terri", a weak drama by Azazel Jacobs, stars Jacob Wysocki as Terri Thompson, a shy, bullied, overweight teenager. As is typical of such films, Terri strikes up a relationship with a beautiful girl who is likewise an outcast and who readily offers him sex. Less conventional is a character played by John C. Reilly. He's a one time outcast who has grown up to become a school principal. Reilly takes Terri under his wing for a series of teacher/student meetings, and does his best to counsel the poor kid.Jacobs directed "Momma's Man" a few years earlier, a similar but stronger film. "Terri", in contrast, reeks of indie conventions. Its most interesting moments - "Terri" confronting some bizarre, murderous inclinations – are brought up only to be quickly cast aside.6/10 – Worth one viewing.

The movie's not bad but the premise that Terry wears pajamas everywhere implausible. At the first sight of this if the police didn't pick him up & bring him home or to the station and he made it to school he would have been sent right home or sent to the principal's office until an adult or Child Services picked him up. Plus its hard to have compassion for someone who basically wears the same pajamas every day which would be unhygienic. And past all this we are supposed to believe the asst. principal never mentions it? While some of the characters are endearing some are not. You may want to spend your viewing time on a different movie.

Hollywood films have their clichés, but so do Sundance indies as well. We've all sat through underwritten sensitive stories about loners where so much of what is going on is "left unsaid." It's a fine line between poetically subtle and just plain underwritten, and this film falls in the latter category. Who is Terri? Why is he the way he is? Who are any of these people? And none of the relationships here are at all interesting. Nor is there any attempt to provide any kind of psychological insight. Several times characters are confronted about their behavior (Terri in gym class, the girl regarding a sexual encounter, the principal in his office), only to shrug and fail to offer any insight. There's no "there" here. It's an empty bag, a "Sundance favorite" that has nothing to offer. This is something anyone could have written over a weekend. It's been 6 decades since Holden Caufield, and yet people still try to do the sensitive teen thing. Rent Rushmore instead.

The tag-line for "Terri" is "We've all been there." Yes, we have all felt alienated at some point in our lives. But unlike Terri, most of us do not pro-actively alienate ourselves. Terri is in high school and life is difficult for him because he's weird, over-weight and just plain unlikable. We're supposed to feel sympathy for him, but I never liked him.He wears pyjamas to school (the same ones everyday), takes joy in the demise of animals, and has no thought of altering his behaviour when kids bully him. The only thing that seems to help is when Assistant Principal Mr. Fitzgerald (John C. Reilly) takes an interest in helping him and denotes him as a good-hearted student.I like John C. Reilly and I like the idea of the principal wanting to help out the less popular kids. Fitzgerald's tactics are unorthodox and certainly not illegal or even immoral, but in reality, they would definitely get him fired. Terri's would-be friends were more interesting characters but the pretty and popular Heather who was written as knowing how pretty she is would be less likely to engage in low self-esteem actions.Perhaps "Terri" isn't even trying to place itself in reality. I don't know. For such a simple, slow-moving film, there was a number of things that I didn't know. Some of which they didn't tell me, others I just didn't care enough to find out the answers for myself. If Terri doesn't care, why should I?