Harold: Critic Reviews

Harold is the type of one-note dead zone ideally suited for a bathroom break while sitting home on a Saturday night, alone and semidrunk, in front of the television.

The long stretches of dead air that, it can only be assumed, were supposed to be filled by laughter provide ample time for pondering what audience Harold, T. Sean Shannon's strenuously stale comedy, was intended to find.

A terminally lame puberty comedy about a prematurely bald 13-year-old.

Harold is a genuine oddity that's more watchable than it sounds.

There's little indication, beyond the endlessly unfunny school humiliations and fogey-dom signposts (ha ha, he uses Old Spice), that the notion of a preteen codger is worth our sympathies.

confidently struts along, seemingly unaware of its lackluster script and distinct lack of professionalism.

While the script never gels into anything worthy of the peculiar premise, Harold is still worth seeing for Breslin's marvelously weird performance.

Has a wan sweetness to it which helps it through its more forced and obvious patches, of which there are many.

Shot and lit like a mediocre TV show, the sporadically amusing Harold is a true Blockbuster contender, that is for the bargain bins of the video store. And soon.

Breslin is the best thing about this myopic comedy that doesn't even get any humorous traction from the stereotypes it presses through its low-fidelity independent film filter.

An outsider adolescent sinks in a sea of troubles in this wobbly comedy.

Aside from a few smart tweaks, the film doesn't subvert the genre but rather falls afoul of it.

Abigail's older brother Spencer Breslin, does his own magnificent Little Mister Sunshine leading boy thing. Harold, a kinder, gentler Superbad minus the talking dirty teen motormouths. Move over, Judd Apatow.

The low-budget high-school comedy is no 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' but should provide for not only laughs but some insight into the life of a smart, 13-year-old outsider.