《 疯狂万圣夜》                             

    In his big-screen directing debut*, Josh Schwartz has done a good job making a funny and smart movie.

    Victoria Justice plays Cleveland high school senior Wren, a long-legged lovely girl whose intelligence makes her a helpless nerd*. Her role is not interesting; the color belongs to those around her, beginning with little brother Albert (Jackson Nicoll), a creative troublemaker whose Halloween*-night disappearance drives the comedy.

    Eight-year-old Albert, who starts his own adventure* early in the trick-or-treating*, hasn’t spoken in about a year, suffering after the death of his father.

    However fast or slow she goes on her search, Wren gets help from friend Roosevelt (Thomas Mann), the guy who appreciates her while she longs for* dreamboat* Aaron (Thomas McDonell). Roosevelt’s invitation to his big Halloween party is directed at Wren, but she’s less excited about it than her best friend April (Jane Levy, of Suburgatory), who wouldn’t let her “sexy kitty” costume go to waste. Neither is Peng (Osric Chau), who rocks an Aaron Burr powdered wig*.

    Wren’s mother Joy is sensitively* played by Chelsea Handler. Joy insists that Wren watch her little brother on Halloween night, so she can go to a party with her boyfriend.

    The movie has a flat look, and the Cleveland locations are not very different from the scrubbed* suburbia* of Vancouver or Los Angeles.

    Without taking the film out of its middle-class background, costume designer Eric Daman makes the most of the wild Halloween setup.

    (SD-Agencies)