COCONUT HERO (Florian Cossen). 97 minutes. Opens Friday (March 18). See listing. Rating: N
Teen Mike Tyson (Alex Ozerov) is preparing to end his life by rifle, but before he pulls the trigger a light bulb turns on: he needs to put his obituary in the local paper first, an idea that backfires when his suicide attempt goes wrong. Coconut Hero then turns into a film about an oddball kid relieved to find out he has a brain tumour, a new escape hatch from his small Canadian town seemingly populated by Wes Anderson’s bastard children. The writers and director of this determinedly quirky German-Canadian co-pro fail to realize that their gambit is a cliché, one that was dated even before Zach Braff moped about in Garden State more than a decade ago. It doesn’t help that the emotionally vacuous dramedy has no regard for the sensitive topics it makes light of.
