BrianSez's Review

Summary - OK 2.5

A tale of childhood romance, growing up in the late 50s, and family drama. Rob Reiner assembled a great cast, and weaves a tale of giddy kid-crushes and the back and forth of young love. The movie ends up feeling like a cross between the TV show “Wonder Years” and “The Waltons”. The latter only because, the stories seemed overly long and drawn out, made worse by Rob’s choice of using a dual monologs from the Juli and Bryce. To be sure, the characters are incredibly engaging; you really end up wanting to learn more about them. Too bad it all took so long. Watch this on a sleepy Sunday morning.

Acting - Very Good 3.5

Loved Madeline Carroll (Juli) and Callan McAuliffe (Bryce). Madeline has a very genuine way about her, and Callan is going to be a strong and silent star for millions of swooning girls. But so many other great actors: Rebecca DeMornay as Bryce’s sensitive mom, Anthony Edwards (of ER fame) as his snobby dad, Penelope Ann Miller (Juli’s mom), Aidan Quinn (Weeds, Prime Suspect) as Juli’s proud dad, John Mahoney (Frasier) as Bryce’s grandpa. Every one of them did a great job.

Film - Barely OK 2.0

Bottom line is that it just got boring. Great story, great acting, just too darn drawn out. Too bad.

Edge - Tame 1.1

Reality - Glib 1.1

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