Ten Inch Hero

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Rating 1½


Directed by David Mackay

Written by Betsy Morris

Starring Elisabeth Harnois, Clea DuVall, Jensen Ackles, Sean Patrick Flanery, Danneel Harris, John Doe, Alice Krige Adair Tishler and Sean Wing


Piper (Elisabeth Harnois), a young aspiring artist, moves to Santa Cruz and answers an ad stating, “help wanted, normal people need not apply,” to get a job as a waitress at the City Beach Cafe, which is owned by an old hippie surfer called Trucker (John Doe, the one-time singer with the mercurial Los Angeles punk band X). Piper has come to Santa Cruz in search of the daughter she gave up for adoption as a teenager.

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‘Ten Inch Hero’ was made in 2007 on a shoe-string budget and subsequently screened at a number of film festivals in the US, although it has never received a theatrical release. I first became aware of the film because of the cast and have been waiting for the opportunity to see it ever since. Sadly, it proved to be a somewhat disappointing experience. This might be the most cloyingly saccharine film I have ever willingly sat through. There is more treacle to be found here than in a sweet factory. It conforms to all the stereotypes of a typical low-budget independent feel-good movie, but whereas the characters are clearly intended to be quirky and likeable, too often the screenplay has them veer way too close to being simply annoying. The message the film seems to be trying to tell us is that beauty is not just skin deep, but far too often it almost borders on being offensive.

After a while I found myself going with the flow, but although it is not by any means entirely dislikeable, it did try my patience early on and only the likeable cast kept me watching to the end.

Review posted 14 April 2009



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