Dir. Mark Levin, 2005, USA, 90 mins
Cast: Josh Hutcherson, Charlie Ray, Bradley Whitford, Cynthia Nixon
Review by Carol Allen
When I received a preview invitation to this movie, the only information
it gave about the story was the tagline: "New York City is the most
romantic place in the world - especially when you're falling in love for
the first time". Ah, a romantic comedy, I guess? Possibly soppy? Well,
yes, sort of, to the first and no to the second. Because the film is a
delightful surprise.
The couple falling in love are still children, a story idea which,
at first, I thought unlikely and a bit suspect, until I remembered an
incident in primary school, when the boy I liked chased me round the
class room and kissed me - all totally innocent, as indeed are the two
children in this film. Times have, however, changed in that 11-year-old
Gabe (Hutcherson) and the object of his affections Rosemary (Ray) are
subject to far more overt sexual propaganda and other disturbing aspects
of the adult world than children used to be. Gabe's parents (Whitford
and Nixon) are on the brink of divorce. And at the same time, Gabe is
seeing Rosemary, whom he's known since nursery school, in a totally
different light, when they are partnered together at karate class.
Hutcherson and Ray are very good indeed, charming without any of the
self-conscious cuteness child actors can suffer from. And they both
have good voices; unlike so many American kids, they don't quack or
whine. Which is just as well, as Gabe's complicated new emotional haze
and mood swings are expressed through a sensitively written inner voiceover,
which Hutcherson delivers beautifully. Whitford and Nixon lend
good support as the main adult characters, but it's the kids' story,
played out against a lovingly filmed Upper West Side backdrop.
Director Levin and screenwriter Jennifer Flackett are a husband and wife
team who've been co-writing for film and television for nearly ten
years, and this is Levin's directorial debut. They've given the film
a nice, crisp style, and while making us laugh sympathetically at
Gabe's moments of embarrassment and awkwardness compared to Rosemary's
already much more sophisticated grasp of the way to handle the boy/girl
dance, it also perfectly captures that innocent time in our lives, when
holding hands had more emotional impact than an actual night of passion.
It's very sweet but it's never saccharine.
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