Flipped PG
This movie seems like watching Rob Reiner's home movies of how he met his true love, or how he thought it should have happened. It could have been so much better, a kind of Wonder Years movie, but it at times appeared forced and insincere. The story takes place in the late 1950s and early 1960s in a small town where a plucky girl sits in a tree that is going to be chopped down, a stalks the boy next door, who is both attracted and repulse at her affections, and when he finally realizes he does like her, he accidentally makes a mess of it. The story is an after school special and just doesn't come off with the charm of Stand By Me or A Christmas Story or perhaps My Girl. For one, the title was bad. Flipped was the best they could come up with? Really? How about 'The Sycamore Summer' or something? But no, they didn't come up with that The dialog was odd at times, like the children said and reasoned things much too adult for their age. They're like 12 and they're reasoning the complexities of relationships! What? Puppy love just happens at that age. It is not rationalized. It should have been better. It so could have. It was like the director knew it was a male Mary Sue and didn't want to offend the actual real people it was based on. If that wasn't the case, why force it? The girl was way too smart and self assured. The parents on both sides were total jerks. Their dysfunction was out of character for rural 1960s America. Maybe in the city, but not in a small town.
Review by Adam Browne
Review by Adam Browne
True, I was annoyed at the manic way the adults acted and the ridiculously adult and mature way the kids acted. What planet was this? Was it like they were in 'simpler time' mode and everything was like a Norman Rockwell painting? Probably. But it had so much potential to be like a Wonder Years movie, and they blew it.
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