NAPOLEON DYNAMITE

REVIEWED BY SHANNON H.

Our rating: 4 out of 5

Because of: thematic elements

Rated:

In junior high and high school, everyone was segregated into cliques: the popular kids, the gang-bangers, the Goth kids, the loners, and especially the geeks and nerds. Some had a great experience in school; others were miserable as they were the butt of practical jokes and outcasts of teenage society. Those who were shunned by their peers as pariahs often sought refuge in groups of kids like themselves, dreamed of getting revenge for being picked on, or imagined themselves as a member of the in-crowd.

Napoleon Dynamite (Jon Heder) is the stereotypical nerd who has almost no friends. He often sits at the back of the school bus and wears clothes that are 20 years out of style. Napoleon is constantly picked on by kids at school and he always daydreams of dating the prettiest girls, being liked, and most importantly, being seen as "cool." He lives with his grandmother and his older brother Kip (Aaron Ruell), who spends his time on the Internet chatting with his online girlfriend, LaFawnduh (the stereotypical African American woman).

When their grandmother takes an overnight trip to go riding ATVs in sand dunes, she ends up breaking a few bones and spending some time in the hospital. Meanwhile, Napoleon and Kip get a visit from their uncle Rico (Jon Gries), a con-artist who lives in a van and for some reason, still thinks he lives in the year 1982. Uncle Rico ends up watching over Kip and Napoleon until their grandmother gets out of the hospital. He then recruits Kip to make money by selling overpriced tupperware and ends up making Napoleon's life miserable by taunting him and betraying his friendship with a girl that he likes. What is interesting about Napoleon is that he is not ashamed of his nerdiness. He doesn't deny it and still refuses to shun his identity to fit in the popular crowd. He just wants to be accepted for who he is. He befriends "the new kid," a Mexican boy named Pedro and helps him to run for school president. Napoleon also befriends Deb, a girl who is also a social outcast and they end up dancing together at the school dance.

The film is quite clean for the most part. The producers and makers of this film are Mormon, which explains why there's no sex, nudity, or cussing. There are one or two sensual overtones when Kip meets LaFawnduh for the first time and they end up going on a "date" together (they briefly play footsie under the table). Uncle Rico passes out flyers to Napoleon's female classmates advertising breast enlargement. The violence is strictly PG fare.  Napoleon is occasionally punched, kicked, and thrown against his locker. Some of the bullies on campus prey upon the less socialable kids. In the movie, there is a great deal of disrespectful attitudes toward one another.

The popular kids almost always shun Napoleon and his friends. Summer (played by Hillary Duff's sister Haylie) cruelly turns down Pedro for a date. Trisha, Summer's friend, weasels her way out of a date with Napoleon to the school dance by leaving him to hang out with her own friends (Trisha's mom had to convince her to go to the dance with him). The film doesn't mention spirituality at all but we can learn that God loves us no matter what. Napoleon Dynamite teaches us that cliques can segregate and make us antagonistic towards each other instead of being cordial and friendly. I really enjoyed this movie. I could relate to Napoleon's plight since I was picked on a lot in jr. high, especially in the sixth grade when the teasing got so bad that my parents almost sent me to another school. The film is so much better than its R-rated counterpart, Revenge of the Nerds, because of its ability to communicate teenage social problems without sex or excessive profanity.

Being a "nerd" myself, I saw part of myself in Napoleon. Though I wasn't exactly thrown violently against a wall of lockers or constantly punched in the stomach, I recalled all those memories of being called "four-eyes," someone pouring a coke can full of water down my shirt, and being laughed at for listening to classical music and the local oldies station (my tastes in music have changed since then). Not only is it able to provoke thought, it's also funny as well. Napoleon has some humorous moments when he has to feed his grandmother's pet llama, Tina and when he dances in front of the whole school as part of Pedro's campaign speech. Whether you think it's funny or serious, it's a great film to be seen and clean enough to bring your teenage kids (it also might teach them a lesson, too).