Everything about The Rocker is a minor version of something else: Rainn Wilson is a lesser Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate is the underwritten sort-of love interest usually played by Maura Tierney and the movie itself is sub-School of Rock. But director Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty) infuses the film with enough homage, sight gags and great music that it’s hard to deny its zany, PG-13 charms. Wilson is Robert “Fish” Fishman, who’s ousted from his high school band Vesuvius, which goes on to have a 20-year glam-metal career (somehow). He ends up manning the skins for his nephew’s emo band, ADD, which rockets to stardom through a trajectory even more improbable than that of The Stains, culminating in a gig opening for…wait for it…Vesuvius. It’s nothing you haven’t seen before, but a few things raise it above average: the casting of floppy-haired singer Teddy Geiger as the perfectly wrought sensitive leader of ADD; the memorable and catchy emo-pop songs composed by Chad Fischer (Garden State, Private Practice); and the cameo smattering of hip comedians (Jane Krakowski, Will Arnett, Demetri Martin). And of course Wilson, who will likely never escape the shadow of Dwight Schrute, but it’s fun to watch him give it a major try.
This article appears in Feb 26 – Mar 4, 2009.
