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Moody teenagers rule in The Chumcrubber, starring Jamie Bell. He's the school loner and the remote arm with which indie filmmaker Arie Posin takes a swipe at the suburban drones raising their kids on a diet of video games and Ritalin. Unfortunately, the lofty ideals Posin aims for are out of his reach and he's left to scrabble desperately for a story to plug in the gaps. Nobody could blame you if, watching this, you suddenly had an attack of Attention Deficit Disorder.

A shock opening sees Dean (Bell) find his best buddy swinging from a noose. His mother (Glenn Close) is oblivious since she's hosting a cocktail party and Dean decides not to bother her, because after all, parents don't care what their children get up to. This theme is carried through into a botched kidnapping involving the school bully (Justin Chatwin) and a kid who turns out not to be Dean's little brother (Thomas Curtis). Still, it's up to Dean to save the boy, because his mum (Rita Wilson) is too busy planning her wedding.

"PHONINESS LEADS UP TO A FEW MOMENTS OF SINCERITY"

The contrivances that keep Wilson's bride-to-be from realising her son is missing are so ridiculous it's neither clever nor funny. And Ralph Fiennes' spaced-out groom is the icing on an over-egged cake. Meanwhile, Posin draws no urgency from Dean's efforts to retrieve the boy, because Chatwin's tough guy act is obviously just empty bluster. Close's take on the Stepford Wife feels stale, though thankfully the mask does eventually slip, giving her character some dimension. Similarly, Bell's vulnerability on screen is captivating and he even manages to juice some emotion from the final scenes. Sadly, after all the phoniness leading up to these few precious moments of sincerity, it already feels like Game Over.

The Chumscrubber is released in UK cinemas on Friday 8th June 2007.