A period comedy set in the 1980s, Jonathan Glatzer's What Goes Up tells the poignant story of a morally challenged New York reporter who connects with a group of high school outcasts while in New Hampshire covering the story of Christa McAuliffe, the first civilian astronaut. Arriving in McAullife's hometown, reporter Campbell Babbitt (Steve Coogan) is distraught to learn that an old college friend has recently committed suicide. Meanwhile, as Babbitt attempts to craft an unsung hero story about
his old friend by gravitating toward the teacher's misfit students, local teacher (Molly Shannon) scrambles to cover up a looming scandal. When Babbitt discovers that the motley crew of teens is comprised of a self-absorbed seductress (Hilary Duff), a timid voyeur (Josh Peck), and a manipulative pregnant teen (Olivia Thirlby), he becomes obsessed with our need to create heroes where none exist. Over time, the roles are reversed and Babbitt learns that the traits he is currently projecting onto his fallen friend's students may in fact be traits possessed by he and other adults. Increasingly at ease around the students as he relates to them on their own terms, Babbitt gradually begins to form a fixation on the very student rumored to have had an affair with his deceased friend. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
The whole thing feels like a premeditated attempt at a Sundance sensation, a mix of cast members (and ideas) from Juno and Hamlet 2 spiced up with the now obligatory '80s references.
Director and co-writer Jonathan Glatzer handles his talented cast well, and the movie is dark, droll and sentimental in roughly the correct proportions.
[Director] Glatzer aims to wring laughter out of this desperation but succeeds only in producing a series of contrived characters and situations that make The Breakfast Club look like an unfiltered documentary.
O humor melancólico estabelecido pelo estreante Glatzer funciona na maior parte do tempo, sendo beneficiado ainda pela impecável performance de Coogan.
Duff and the other young actors should not be faulted for the adults around them, both in the movie and behind the cameras. They excel at projecting the confusion and anguish of students in crisis, and all deserve an A. The filmmakers are another matter.
The film opens chaotically, perhaps randomly, and it never finds its proper footing. Most movies take their sweet time to reveal incompetence. What Goes Up boldly advertises it within the first 60 seconds.
Has a charismatic performance by Steve Coogan, but that's not nearly enough to save it from drowning from its bland, awkward and lazy screenplay that fails to generate any real laughs or palpable dramatic tension.
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