The ‘high school misfit against the world’ concept has been mined in the movie world many times before, but that doesn’t stop Glee star Chris Colfer’s scripting debut from offering up plenty of smart and quirky moments.
The film begins with the death (the ‘struck by lightning’ of the title) of 17-year-old Carson Phillips (Colfer), who then narrates a look-back at his troubled high school life. He is editor of the school newspaper, but is despised and largely ignored by his schoolmates and only has one best friend, Malerie Baggs (played with a good deal of quirky charm by Australian actress Rebel Wilson, who featured in Bridesmaids). Home life is little better for Carson. He lives with his single mother (Allison Janney), whose life is based around booze and prescription drugs since his father Neal (Dermot Mulroney) left them. Her life is thrown up in the air when dad arrives back in town, along with his pregnant girlfriend April (Christina Hendricks). Janney is wonderful as his sarcastic, boozy, seemingly unemotional mother, and the scenes she has with the equally fine Christina Hendricks as her former husband’s new partner are high points in the film.
Mark Adams, Screen International
