Derived from the book of the same name co-written under a pseudonym by James Frey, that specialist in converting fiction to “fact,” "I am Number Four" understandably involves a great deal of dissembling and undercover chicanery.
Of course, you can’t blame Number Four, aka John Smith (Alex Pettyfer), for wanting to survive, and for not being able to tell the truth in order to survive. He’s an alien on the run from other aliens, the evil “Mogadorians.” These aliens will chase him and the eight other “Loriens,” all over the earth until all nine Loriens crumble to dust—as every non-Earthling in this film does at death, in a bit lifted from the “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” TV series.
The Mogadorians, look like goth football linebackers who got their faces caught in power sanders. They exude a lethal cool. Settling into his new high school, “Four” isn’t quite so cool. His guardian Henri (Timothy Olyphant), tells him to keep his head down and never make trouble. Easier said than done for any new kid in town, let alone one who’s faster and stronger than anybody else (but not allowed to show it), and who suffers from bright lights blazing from certain body parts at inopportune times. Young Mr. Smith’s embarrassment and frantic dashes for the bathroom wryly suggest a more ordinary adolescent male who’s lost control of his voice, or his glands.
Diana Agron of TV’s “Glee” plays the steadfast but secretly hurt Sarah. Another social outcast, she can feel Four’s freakiness, just as he can feel hers. She doesn’t fathom, of course, how very freaky her new boyfriend will turn out to be.
Throw in Callan McAuliffe as Sam, Four’s hopelessly geeky best friend, and you’ve got a solid coming-of-age dramedy with alien overtones. You’ll have to grit your teeth through the first twenty minutes, when the filmmakers decide to tell, not show, the entire backstory. The big finish, where the Mogadorians land in force and you finally find out, among other things, what’s living in the big truck, will satisfy most action film lovers.
While two macho types near me lamented when the lights came up that the film was more chick flick than "man show," I thought the saga of John Smith, trying to fit in without being found out, looking for love, looking for friendship, and learning how to stand his ground while making sacrifices, was more than enough man show for me.
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