Orange County
Review by By Clint Morris
 Every
year millions of optimistic youngsters write up and send out
their applications to universities and colleges across the
country, hoping to be accepted into the institution of their
choice.
Many of these colleges reply - but a lot of the time kids
are forced to face the reality of not being accepted, and
faced with a life without a college education.
Is there anything worse? If you ask Shaun (Colin Hanks) the
answer is a resounding no...
Yearning to flee his batty family and featureless subsistence
in small time Orange County, budding writer Shaun is set on
attending Stanford - but when his application comes back stamped
'rejected' he froths at the mouth, spins into an infuse and
drops into a state of alarm.
After running into a dead-end with the responsible career
counselor at his high school, Shaun seeks the assistance of
his bong-smoking deadhead brother (Jack Black) and long-time
dependable girlfriend (Shuyler Fisk) on an impromptu mission
to Stanford, where he plans to convince the dean of admissions
to let him in.
Orange County doesn't sound like much and it's nothing groundbreaking;
it's just a very well written comedy of errors. 26-year-old
Jake Kasdan (son of Lawrence) has a finesse for writing about
the youth, and obviously understands the plights and terror
of being a teen trapped in today's society - especially when
you have an exasperatingly anomalous family like Shaun has.
His mums an alcoholic, she's got an elderly incapable husband,
dad's a rich but selfish drag, brother's a loss to anyone
and the housekeeper isn't too stable herself. The life you
dread, stuck in the dead-end small town you grew up in is
an almost near reality.
Had this been 1984, Tom Hanks might have been the man to
carry this movie. But it's 2002 - and Tom's moved onto much
more evocative material - thankfully, his son Colin is all
grown up now, and carries the talent and personality not unlike
his Oscar winning father.
Hanks, after three bit movie roles and a part on a TV show,
carries Orange County with ease. This is his Bachelor
Party if you will, a film that set Hanks Senior on his
road to stardom 18 years ago.
Adding support, Jack Black is ultimately authentic as his
trademark dead-loss character; and Shuyler Fisk (daughter
of actress Sissy Spacek) is influential as the long-suffering
girlfriend. It's also great to see a slew of cameos in the
film - especially valuable in some of the more dawdling minutes
of the movie.
At only 82 minutes Orange County doesn't outstay it's
welcome - and although it's quite interesting and somewhat
humorous to chuckle at Shaun's fight for fame; it's a journey
better left experiencing on video. For Colin Hanks though,
the future looks bright.
I see a mermaid in his next movie...
3 out of 5
Orange County
Australian release: Thursday August 22nd
Cast: Colin Hanks, Jack Black, Schuyler Fisk, Catherine O'Hara,
John Lithgow, Harold Ramis, Chevy Chase, Lily Tomlin, Leslie
Mann.
Director: Jake Kasdan.
Website: Click
here
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