It's a shock to see Sobieski in the first scene — her hair is dyed black, she has multiple facial piercings, and tattoos on her arms. Gone is the Helen Hunt look-alike; in her place is the disaffected teen who works at the local vintage clothing shop. As Jennifer, an unhappy 17-year-old who admits to her English class, "I don't think of myself as a girl or woman; I'm just the opposite of a boy," and writes eulogies for herself, this young actress pulls off what Thora Birch couldn't quite manage in Ghost World.

Lahti's vivid direction helps. The character's skewed worldview is given constant prominence through some wonderful cinematic distortions and hallucinations. After getting a job in a men's clothing store, Jennifer sees Randall (Brooks) — the salesman/manager who hired her — as an overweight blob and then seconds later as a hulking muscleman. The youngster's mother and stepfather, teachers, and classmates suffer similar visual indignities, and these sequences capture perfectly how a miserable young woman perceives her hostile environment. Ghost World relied simply on the snide asides of the main characters; My First Mister goes a step further, and its achievement is greater.

As the friendship between Randall and Jennifer deepens, Lahti's film can't quite sustain its momentum. Jennifer's transformation from modern primitive to modern hipster is a bit too abrupt. Most folks realize at some point that they can be nonconformist and wear colors other than black, but for such an extreme case, this epiphany should be slower in coming. Costume designer Kimberly Tillman does a nice job of changing Sobieski's wardrobe and still making it different from the norm, but the initial shift is jarring.

The two leads truly work wonders together. If one needed convincing that a platonic friendship between a 17-year-old and a 49-year-old could happen, My First Mister can serve as proof. Brooks refines his deadpan humor to perfection, as in one scene where he begs a tattoo artist, "I want the smallest one you've got, like a period." He's also more touching than usual, as when his character tries to describe his relationship with Jennifer to an older female friend. The woman wants to know if his love stems from romantic or parental feelings, or a longing for his lost youth. The bemused way Brooks says, "Yes, all of those," is quite wonderful.

Sobieski has the challenge of portraying someone worthy of all those complicated emotions, and she's magnificent. Whether Jennifer is telling her none-too-pleased parents (played wonderfully by Carol Kane and Michael McKean) that her dead grandmother is sitting across the table or asking Randall to dance with her, this knowing actress conveys the myriad emotional upheavals her character is facing.

When My First Mister heads into its home stretch with a prominent character falling ill, it begins to tug at the heartstrings a bit too forcefully. Still, the final images the film conjures of the extended family that has been created through Randall and Jennifer's friendship is quite touching. And the rapport our young protagonist begins to feel with the world is realistically achieved. Since Jill Franklyn's script and Christine Lahti's direction don't shy away from the terrors of Jennifer's life, viewers shouldn't overly begrudge them the desire to show her joys and sorrows as well.