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Is public speaking the way to a girl's heart? The hero of Rocket Science certainly thinks so, despite having the personality of a mollusc and a stammer that makes every sentence a hurdle. As in his Oscar-nominated documentary Spellbound, writer/helmer Jeffrey Blitz uses intellectual competition as a hook to reveal character, humour and tenacity. Despite the script's witty eloquence and Reece Daniel Thompson's engaging lead performance however, the director's first foray into fiction can't help feeling like Rushmore revisited.

With divorced parents, a bullying brother and a stammer that only heightens his feelings of isolation and embarrassment, life couldn't be harder for New Jersey teen Hal (Thompson). But when ultra-bright classmate Ginny Ryerson (Anna Kendrick) selects him to be her new debate team partner, things start to look up for this introverted outcast - provided he can conquer his speech disorder long enough to survive in her cutthroat world of rhetoric. What begins as a straightforward tale of adversity overcome, however, takes some unexpected detours en route to its defiantly non-formulaic ending.

"RATHER TOO FAMILIAR"

"Why don't you go back to how you were, before you tried to exceed your limitations?" advises Hal's far from helpful counsellor. But while Blitz celebrates Ginny's fearsome articulacy, his admiration doesn't exclude empathy for those less equipped to handle the myriad confusions of adolescence. If there's a problem, it's simply that Rocket Science feels rather too familiar - a suspicion bolstered by a cameo from Superbad's Jonah Hill and a female lead who could be Tracy 'Election' Flick's smarter sister.

Rocket Science is out in the UK on 28th September 2007.