Directed by Gavin Wiesen. Starring Freddie Highmore, Emma Roberts, Michael Angarano, Sam Robards, Rita Wilson, Blair Underwood, Alicia Silverstone 12A cert, gen release, 83 min
NO, NO, NO. Is the tortured teenage hero really reading Albert Camus's L'étrangerwhile listening to the now ubiquitous sounds of bleeding Leonard Cohen? He is. Indeed, he takes two cracks at that famously bleak novel. Even if these scenes are meant slightly archly – and that might be a generous assessment – this insufferable faux-indie romdram still plumbs new depths in its efforts to cover ever cliche of the genre.
You know how it goes. A lonely teenager in a big coat walks the autumnal streets while strummy mope-rock irritates its way onto the achingly predictable soundtrack. Eventually he hooks up with an annoying pixie-girl and the poor little rich kids set out to assert their dazzling individuality by doing all the things every teenager does in these circumstances.
Painful to relate, he actually does take her to see a Nouvelle Vague film (Louis Malle's Zazie dans le metro) in an archetypically shabby rep cinema. They do meet up with a bohemian artist. They do walk in the rain.
Even if the performances were up to scratch, The Art of Getting Bywould still grate like black fingernails dragged down a vinyl copy of a supposedly definitive Pavement LP. As it happens, Freddie Highmore does little more than remind us that, for the last decade or so, he has been constantly on the point of breaking into tears. The bland Emma Roberts offers no further clues as to the causes of her inexplicable celebrity.
We should show them some pity. This tired picture confirms that the existential teen drama can be every bit as formulaic as the average Sandra Bullock vehicle. Such beasts can also be just as conservative. This is, at its weary heart, a film about a boy who won’t do his homework. He eventually obliges. Now tidy your room.
