T.J. is a small boy who just lost his mother and he does not know how to deal with that. The fact that his father became totally apathetic does not help, he just sleeps on the couch all day. T.J. and his father moved in with grandma (Pauper Laurie). T.J. is bullied by Dustin, a boy from school who is somewhat older. At one occasion T.J. is helped out by Nicole (Natalie Portman) and however she is quite a bit older, T.J. is drawn towards her from then on. During an unfortunate event T.J. gets acquainted with Hesher, an over-stereotypicalised shit-for-brains metalhead with magic-marker drawings for tattoos, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Hesher manages to come and live with T.J. and his family which does not make T.J.’s situation much easier. Hesher is a completely asocial character, but inspite of his crudeness he (sometimes) seems to want to help. Hesher’s appearance brings speed, action and humour to this film which has actually quite a heavy story. Teaching T.J. some of his life-lessons and simply just for heaving fun, Hesher again and again manages to make the worst out of situations, or does he?
“Hesher” is not an overly interesting film. The old (heavy) metal music and black humour are nice, but when it comes to it “Hesher” is a thin, moralistic Hollywood film about an outsider pointing towards the obvious in a family’s problems. Amusing, but nothing more.
