Summer Eleven (2010)

I rented this movie to watch with my 11 year old as we were going away for the weekend and thought it would be a perfect movie night movie to watch together. It looked heartwarming, entertaining, enjoyable and easy to relate to for my Miss 11. It was the MOST depressing, worst movie we had both seen. My 11 year old who is very easy to please extremely disliked it and at the end of it she even said, "I think that was the worst movie I've ever seen, Mum!" The acting was terrible, the story-line was depressing. Its basically a movie about four 11 year olds and all their problems in their lives. It doesn't even have any life lessons. Pity I hadn't taken another DVD on holiday with me as a back-up!

I just gave it a straight ten, this film totally surprised and charmed me. It completely avoids any cliché that seems to perpetuate in so many girls films. In this film girls are so refreshingly _not_ the little self - centered gigglers whose main and only subject are boys, and main plot is _not_ around petty fight that two of them had.There are some deep and challenging events for kids at that age in the plot, and yet the movie is never a *drama*. It is represented the way kids handle it - just like you rarely see a kid just blocked - they accept and move on. It may appear light hearted, an it is in a way, but that is because it remains true to that particular perspective - kids cope with certain events, ups or downs, better than the adults do (obviously, not talking about extremes now). Another point that I loved about the movie is that I have miserably failed whenever I thought that I had a particular character all figured out. I didn't. I loved the Valerie Mahaffey performance - brilliant. Girls as well.

Joseph Kell is a writer-director to be reckoned with. His vision and talent were already apparent in his wonderful short, "Cassie Hill" and his talents as a first rate storyteller come to full fruition in "Summer Eleven". A deceptively simple screenplay with first rate performances, mostly by children, this film hits on so many real subjects that most of us try to avoid, as seen through the eyes (and lives) of innocents kids. And yet, there is an overall sweetness and tenderness in the midst of pain, heartache and anguish that is all too real. One of the most human movies I've seen in a long time, with traces of Rob Reiner's "Stand By Me" This film is a complicated puzzle put together so masterfully, it hits you like a light poem that washes over you, yet changes you in some profound way. Who says film can't be art? SPOILER: Northern Exposure fans will relish the on screen reunion of genius actors Adam Arkin and Valerie Mahaffey. I did.

I just tried to watch this with my six year old...NO WAY. The content is way to mature and heavy for a child. I enjoyed it alone as a forty year old but no way will I let my child watch this movie at her age. Life should be fun and happy and carefree...the do not need to even worry about these adult situations so young.....what happened to letting our kids be kids...they grow up fast enough.Again....GREAT movie if you are an adult...but not at all for children to have to even think about. Loved the story line and the characters are great...but not for anybody under the age of 16...way too heavy for anybody under that age to comprehend or even understand.