Charlie Guidance Productions, Charlie Guidance, Faliro House Productions,
Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Ehle, Paulina García, Alfred Molina, Theo Taplitz, Michael Barbieri
Jake Jardine (Theo Taplitz) is 13 years old when his grandfather dies suddenly. Jake and his parents Brian (Greg Kinnear) and Kathy (Jennifer Ehle) move into his grandfather’s apartment in the city, which was left to them plus Brian’s sister. There is a lady downstairs who runs a dress shop and rented the store from Jake’s Grandfather for many years. Her son is the same age as Jake, and the two boys hit it off and become very close friends. At the urging of Brian’s sister though, they decide the rent the lady is playing is way too low and they inform her that they are going to raise the rent. As all the adults erupt into a major battle the boys are caught in the crossfire and determine to resist their parents and try to remain friends.
This is a movie that feels a lot like a play. It develops that way, and a lot of the emphasis is on the long pieces of dialog between the characters. The movie revolves around the boys, who being young teens, can’t understand why their parents are having the problems. Both the boys parents have to make them realize why there is a conflict and why it such an important issue. The boys, of course, would like everyone to just get along. But the have to come to realize that being grown up brings a lot of responsibility and a lot of problems. The cast is pretty good here, and it is a decent character study. Basically it’s a coming of age film more than anything else. That being said, the story isn’t really very good at capturing your attention, and it does develop very slowly. There’s not much excitement here, and a lot of people will probably find this film boring. If you’re not into character development and such, you might find this hard to sit through. I would think it’s not for everyone.
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