Movie Review: Struck By Lightning

Struck By Lightning was stars Chris Colfer as Carson Phillips, a high school boy who lives in a small town and dreams of leaving and going to Northwestern to become a professional writer. After being struck by lightning and killed (not a spoiler, it happens in the first scene), he recalls his life over the past school year and how he got his classmates to contribute to the school literary magazine he started.

Chris Colfer was fantastic in this movie. Carson was absolutely nothing like Kurt, Colfer’s character on Glee which shows that he has real acting chops. I don’t think he’ll be typecast in Kurt-like roles once people see the kind of range he has. Carson was sarcastic, moody and even downright mean at times. He still managed to be likeable because the objects of his indignation were his moronic classmates and his drugged out mother.

Even though this is a low budget, independent movie (shot in only 16 days!) there are actually a lot of well-known, talented actors in it. Allison Janney is fabulous as Carson’s strung out, depressed mom. Durmot Mulrony plays Carson’s clueless, selfish dad Neal and Christina Hendricks is great as his soft spoken and kind fiancé April.

Rebel Wilson plays Carson’s friend Malerie. She is funny but in a more understated way than usual. She should work a little bit more on her American accent I think; I could hear her Australian accent breaking through a few times. She didn’t steal the show like she has in her other movies – this was definitely Chris Colfer’s movie. Chris Colfer also not only wrote the screenplay but also a young adult novel (also called Struck By Lightning) that is an extension of the story in the film. I haven’t read it but it’s definitely on my list to read now.

Struck By Lightning is currently On Demand and is set for limited release in theaters tomorrow, January 11th. I highly recommend that you go see it!