I have published three books on the roles of teenagers in movies, and I can say with confidence that few of them depict early adolescence as delicately as this film. Some viewers may find it too delicate in that regard-- there's little violence and no sex, no drugs or drinking, no insanity-- yet it shows the calculated anxiety that teens deal with when they are bullied and ostracized.
Young viewers should be happy that the protagonists do not play into their victim roles, and learn to gain confidence in a slowly realistic way. Sure, it's a boy and girl on the edge of their sexual awakening, but sex has yet to become an issue in their lives; self-esteem and survival are much higher priorities.
Parents will be happy that the taboos of so many teen movies are not broached here, and that the only parent shown in the film is not bumbling or mean but actually accomplished and concerned.
The novel the film is based on is probably better, because you can just feel the character development that it must have conveyed in many words which is here reduced to a few lines of dialogue and the actors' behavior. Still, there is plenty here to interest and provoke young people-- as other comments have indicated-- and it's a nice alternative to many of the harsher, commercialized films that Hollywood pushes on youth today.
And just in case you get to the ending hoping for a bigger resolution (spoiler alert...), the final lines of the film are written and not spoken, and they powerfully convey perhaps the greatest kind of longing and confession that young teens have so energetically packed inside themselves, roaring to get out.
Young viewers should be happy that the protagonists do not play into their victim roles, and learn to gain confidence in a slowly realistic way. Sure, it's a boy and girl on the edge of their sexual awakening, but sex has yet to become an issue in their lives; self-esteem and survival are much higher priorities.
Parents will be happy that the taboos of so many teen movies are not broached here, and that the only parent shown in the film is not bumbling or mean but actually accomplished and concerned.
The novel the film is based on is probably better, because you can just feel the character development that it must have conveyed in many words which is here reduced to a few lines of dialogue and the actors' behavior. Still, there is plenty here to interest and provoke young people-- as other comments have indicated-- and it's a nice alternative to many of the harsher, commercialized films that Hollywood pushes on youth today.
And just in case you get to the ending hoping for a bigger resolution (spoiler alert...), the final lines of the film are written and not spoken, and they powerfully convey perhaps the greatest kind of longing and confession that young teens have so energetically packed inside themselves, roaring to get out.