| Review:
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A movie about a journalist who questions the honesty
and sincerity of his profession, especially himself, What
Goes Up may also be considering inadvertently the questionable
moral fiber in moviemaking too. If so, What Goes Up, in
its feverish and unfocused search for a seemingly vague
ideal of raw truth, crash lands instead, and with minimal
dramatic impact.***
Writer/director Jonathan Glatzer frames What Goes Up
as two parallel stories that don't quite gel. It's the mid-1980s
during the Reagan era, as the country is poised for the
ill-fated takeoff of the Challenger Space Shuttle, with
Concord, New Hampshire teacher and the first civilian astronaut
Christa McAuliffe, on board. Meanwhile, back in New York
City, jaded journalist Campbell Babbitt (Steve Coogan) has
fallen out of favor with his tyrannical editor. Who declares
in no subtle terms, that 'you smell and you're writing is
baroque,' as she banishes him to Concord to write a story
about their suddenly famous space cadet hometown girl.***
Babbitt is at the same time harboring more personal
concerns, including a chronic guilt trip about having a
secret affair with one of his interview subjects for an
article, followed by her suicide. And in a bid to alleviate
his current self-loathing, Babbitt has embellished his series
of stories about the woman with what may be more diplomaitcally
termed, unabashed hyperbole.***
When Babbitt reluctantly arrives for his assignment
in the dreary boondocks, he tries to locate an old college
friend who has also just committed suicide. And Babbitt
discovers that his recently departed chum happened to be
known locally as 'our almost priest,' and was a favorite
teacher if not scandalous guru to a gang of bratty, raging
hormone challenged alienated teens.***
Among them is Lucy (Hilary Duff), a tempermental student
who may have been having a romance with the teacher; Tess
(Olivia Thirlby), a brooding girl who has been possibly
just knocked up by her lascivious uncle and is in need of
an abortion; and Jim (Josh Pack), a somewhat disturbed boy
who is inclined to grave robbing, and climbs trees to engage
in impulsive auto-erotic voyeurism targeting breastfeeding
moms. There's also Penelope (Molly Shannon), a frazzled
lonely teacher who may likewise have had an affair with
the departed almost priest, and sets her sights on a horrified
Babbitt as an automatic romantic replacement. If this sounds
like a movie overstuffed with plot threads that never quite
come together, it's more than true. And by the way, in this
midst of this deluge of teen angst, Babbitt also grabs a
Pulitzer for his aforementioned tainted series, restoring
his relationship with that contemptuous editor just before
the Challenger crashes somewhere in the movie as a lost
and found narrative sidebar.***
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