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| Josh Duhamel |
Silly teen drama "Bravetown" a forgettable mess of a movie
For a movie about being brave and courageous, the sloppy and by-the-numbers new drama "Bravetown" sure does lack it, not to mention any sense of surprise or inspiration. Josh Harvest ("X-Men's" Lucas Till), a hardened New York City teens is one of the country's top dance club DJs but is sentenced to counseling with a therapist (Josh Duhamel) for a minor drug infraction, along with an extended stay with his estranged father who lives in small town North Dakota. His stay there is uneventful until he finds purpose in helping the town's last-place dance team. "Bravetown," directed by Daniel Duran and written by Oscar Torres, is a lackluster misfire that is in need of better script, characters and direction to make it work. The well-worn troubled teen trying to find his place premise has been overused for years now, and while it starts out well, it loses its footing quickly "Bravetown" and never regains it. As well, a film dealing with some "serious" issues such as drugs and mental problems needs better acting coupled with a coherent story. Till, a handsome young actor on the rise due to his role in the new "X Men" films, blandly grounds the film and should please the young girls seeing the movie, though the woefully miscast Duhamel, not exactly the strongest actor on the lot, provides little believability as his therapist and their awkward scenes together as Duhamel's character espouses some questionable pop psychology hurt the film even more. "Bravetown" is really just an unfortunate mess in execution with a clear identity problem: is it a hard-hitting drama, a dance film or even a patriotic movie to honor the troops (a theme that seems to have been misplaced in post-production due to the awful editing job here). Some may see value in this, but it sure wastes a decent supporting cast including Tom Everett Scott, Maria Bello and in a tiny, rather weird role late in the movie, recent Oscar-nominee Laura Dern, who seems to be acting in another movie altogether. The baffling climax, involving some strange, flag-waving, electronica dance piece designed to honor the troops, is truly misplaced. An even braver move would be just to skip the jumbled silliness that is unfortunately titled "Bravetown."
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