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'Harold'

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BY RAFER GUZMÁN | rafer.guzman@newsday.com

July 11, 2008

It's rare to see an actor rise above weak material, and even rarer when that actor is all of 16. But Spencer Breslin, Abigail's older brother, delivers something close to a tour de force in "Harold," a preteen comedy that aims for high quirkiness but instead sinks to low humor. Shot in Great Neck and featuring that village's Nikki Blonsky ("Hairspray"), the movie seems like an offbeat comic gem only when Breslin is on-screen.

Breslin plays Harold Clemens, a preteen boy who's not only chubby and nerdy but prematurely balding. As a result, he's developed the personality of a grouchy grandpa, spending his evenings growling behind a newspaper while cooling his bunions in an easy chair. No wonder his doctor (Fred Willard) mistakes him for an older man, albeit one with a fantastically healthy prostate.

When Harold's family relocates, he faces a school full of bullies but also makes some misfit friends, including an overweight girl named Rhonda (Blonsky) and the school custodian (Cuba Gooding Jr.). It's all as airy and familiar as an episode of "The Wonder Years," except when writer and co-director T. Sean Shannon resorts to foul language and distasteful sexual humor, which is too often. Even Breslin's deft blend of sweet and sour can't save "Harold."

(PG-13)

PLOT A prematurely balding 13-year-old copes with middle school.

CAST Spencer Breslin, Nikki Blonsky, Cuba Gooding Jr.

LENGTH 1:45.

PLAYING At AMC Loew’s Village VII, Manhattan.

BOTTOM LINE This preteen flick is sunk by vulgar adult humor, but Breslin shines as its curmudgeonly young hero.