Review of Hey Hey, It's Esther BlueBurger

On Saturday January 23, 2010 at the Jackson Jewish Film Festival, I saw the comedy Hey Hey, It's Esther BlueBurger at Millsaps College. This film essentially covers the daily life of an Australian Jewish fourteen year old girl named Esther BlueBurger. In the beginning of the movie, we Esther ridiculed by other girls at an posh, catholic school. She develops a friendship with a duck named Normal whom she retrieves from a bin filled with other ducklings. Normal is eventually killed by Esther's science teacher--in order to be used for dissection. As the story unfolds, we see Esther alone in a world trying to find some kind of acceptance. Eventually, in the middle of the film, Esther leaves her catholic school and--unknown to her parents--attends to the local public school with the help of her new friend, Sunni. Esther becomes close to Sunni's mother and moves further apart from her own family. When Esther and Sunni have a falling out, Esther returns to her catholic school. Now, all those who once ridiculed her revere her. In the end, Esther stops caring about what others think about her, her family, and her friends. The movie ends on a high note where Esther spells out her name phonetically to the entire assembly and falls off the stage. However, she lives. Sunni and Esther once again unite in friendship.

The most distinctive part about this film was the use of music. For a film that appeared relatively low budget, the poppy songs increased the production quality significantly. The choice of music from each scene punctuated the overall emotion of the film.

As far as storytelling, this film did a great job following the life of the young teenager. It really made me care for the character. However, for some reason, the most tense moment in the film--the death of Normal--really pained me. I wish I could've seen the loss Esther experienced more vividly-- that actress could not communicate this through film. As an audience member, I found myself caring much more for Normal's sake than any other character--Esther notwithstanding--in the film. As I am neither Jewish nor Australian, I also felt I missed out on most of the humor in the film. There were some areas of situational hum0r but those were too cliche for me to care about.

Honestly, I don't now if the filmmaker could have made this film any differently. The director did an excellent job in storytelling; however, the actors and subject manner fall short. Walking out of the theatre, I felt more questions had been asked than answered. More than anything, I was subject to a social commentary than a piece of fluff--which is good in a sense. One line that really caught my attention occurred when n Esther said, "I don't wanna be no 14 year old virgin." I could see the pressure young teens must feel for sex. Later, we are given the knowledge that Esther performs oral sex on an older teenager as well. She again feels forced into doing it but social pressures. The film reaches to far and leaves a great void. A better approach would probably been to have focused more on the comedic aspects of Esther's life or than the stark reality of the life of a lost teenager--not attempting to grasp both. I hope that makes sense.