Uploaded May 2012 | Updated September 2026, 30 minutes ago
A teenager tackles the mysteries of life, love and public speaking in Rocket Science, a wry comedy of adolescent angst by Jeffrey Blitz, director of the Academy Award-nominated documentary Spellbound. Life is not easy for teenager Hal Hefner (Reece Daniel Thompson: Bloodworth) of suburban Plainsboro, New Jersey. His parents, Juliet (Lisbeth Bartlett) and Doyle (Denis O'Hare), have abruptly split; his older brother, Earl (Vincent Piazza: The Sopranos) is a budding obsessive compulsive who pushes him around; and he has an unpredictable stutter that makes high school an exercise in embarrassment and self-effacement. But when the hyper-articulate Ginny Ryerson (Anna Kendrick: Up In the Air), asks Hal to join her debating team, his life changes in an instant. Trundling back and forth to her house with his ever-growing pile of research, Hal starts to see new possibilities in his life. Perhaps he can tame his stutter and become a master of rhetoric. Perhaps he can succeed in love - where so many, including his parents, have failed - and win Ginny's heart. ©2007 Home Box Office, Inc. All rights reserved. HBO® is a service mark of Home Box Office, Inc.
A teenager tackles the mysteries of life, love and public speaking in Rocket Science, a wry comedy of adolescent angst by Jeffrey Blitz, director of the Academy Award-nominated documentary Spellbound. Life is not easy for teenager Hal Hefner (Reece Daniel Thompson: Bloodworth) of suburban Plainsboro, New Jersey. His parents, Juliet (Lisbeth Bartlett) and Doyle (Denis O'Hare), have abruptly split; his older brother, Earl (Vincent Piazza: The Sopranos) is a budding obsessive compulsive who pushes him around; and he has an unpredictable stutter that makes high school an exercise in embarrassment and self-effacement. But when the hyper-articulate Ginny Ryerson (Anna Kendrick: Up In the Air), asks Hal to join her debating team, his life changes in an instant. Trundling back and forth to her house with his ever-growing pile of research, Hal starts to see new possibilities in his life. Perhaps he can tame his stutter and become a master of rhetoric. Perhaps he can succeed in love - where so many, including his parents, have failed - and win Ginny's heart. ©2007 Home Box Office, Inc. All rights reserved. HBO® is a service mark of Home Box Office, Inc.
