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Stolen Summer (2002)Rated PG for thematic elements.Starring Adiel Stein, Mike Weinberg, Aidan Quinn, Kevin Pollak, Bonnie Hunt. jchensor's Rating: 6/10
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 Photo ©Miramax Films. All rights reserved. |
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Kids Say The Darndest Things An associate of mine entered the Project Greenlight contest. His script made it pretty far, actually. Because he was involved, I went up to him, recently, and asked if he had seen Stolen Summer. He replied that he had. "What did you think?", I asked him. "It was pretty good," he said with a smile. "It was pretty good, but there was some weak dialogue in it," he added, "but overall, it wasn't bad." "Suprisingly kind," is what I thought to myself. I mean let's face it -- out of 10,000 scripts, this one was chosen. And so now anyone who has ever dreamt of writing a screenplay has to think to him- or herself, "Why this script?" You ask yourself this question and regardless of whether you really wanted to or not, you find yourself in the theater watching Stolen Summer. You sit down before the movie starts and again repeat to yourself, "Why this script?" And after watching the movie... ...you are still left asking, "Why this script?" Which is why I'm surprised my colleague seemed so kind when describing the movie. He was in the Project Greenlight contest and Stolen Summer was the one that was picked? Why? Don't get me wrong here -- Stolen Summer was a good movie. I'd easily give it a thumbs up before giving it a thumbs down. But it wasn't very special. I couldn't see why, out of 10,000 scripts, this one was chosen. There must have been some incredible Memento-like script lurking somewhere in that pile. At least three or four of them. Maybe even five or six. Maybe just one. But the thing that surprised me was how normal Stolen Summer turned out to be. I mean, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were the pair that won a Best Screenplay Academy Award for writing Good Will Hunting, and they helped choose this script out of 10,000 entries. Maybe there were a lot of extraneous influences. Would the film make a good subject to document the entire making of? Does the film seem simple enough to actually be made under a one million dollar budget? Did they want to make sure that the winner could also make a powerful director? There could have been many outside factors that figured in, but even so you'd think that a pair like Matt Damon and Ben Affleck would want something very cutting-edge. Stolen Summer is anything but cutting-edge. Stolen Summer, as it turns out, is a cute kid movie. It follows the story of an Irish Catholic 3rd grader named Pete O'Malley (Adiel Stein). Pete is afraid he is going to hell because his teacher at school threatens that he will if he continues to misbehave at Catholic school. It sounds like a very intense and meaningful script. With a plotline like that, it's easy to assume that the movie will be trying very hard to send a message. But that's kind of dangerous, isn't it? Religion is always a topic that is tough to deal with. The concept of a child, who doesn't quite understand the seriousness of religion, trying to convert another child over to his own faith -- well, it seems like a potential blood boiler. It could make a lot of people angry and spark some controversy. How can you pull off this type of movie without making one religion seem "better" than the other? Well, the answer is: you don't have to. Although a message is given at the end of the film, it's very understated. This happens mainly because the topic is handled mostly through cute kids! There are some serious moments, like a subplot concerning Joe and his rebelling eldest son Patrick (Eddie Kaye Thomas). The movie is by no means an "all-happy-all-the-time" movie, but somehow it just lacks the impact that you would expect from a movie that deals with religion. And from a movie that came from a script picked from 10,000 entries. The movie is enjoyable but, in the end, not particularly memorable. So that brings us back to the original question: "Why this movie?" And unless we ever get a chance to read all 9,999 of the other scripts, we'll probably never know why. ©James Chen, Mar. 28, 2002 |
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Determined to alter his "fate," Pete tries to avoid hell and get to heaven by performing a charitable act. When he finds out that one such charitible act is to convert someone from a different faith over to Catholicism, he makes it a point to do so (he calls it his "quest") by setting up a stand in front of the local Jewish temple to find potential candidates. There, Rabbi Jacobsen (Kevin Pollack) befriends Pete and even goes along with Pete's quest, amused by the young child's determination. When Pete finds out that Rabbi Jacobsen has a son with lukemia, he decides to help young Danny (Mike Weinberg) convert to Catholicism so that he will go to heaven if his illness takes a turn for the worse. Enter Pete's father, Joe O'Malley (Aidin Quinn), a rather forceful and gruff Irish Catholic fireman who disapproves of his son's meddling in another family's faith.
Watching the two children try to talk about a serious topic like religion using very cute, uneducated dialogue really drags down what could have been a very powerfully told story. Instead, what you get is Family Circus Discusses Religion. Case in point: Pete, after talking to his priest, Father Kelly (Brian Dennehy), and his older brother, is convinced that in order to become Catholic, you must pass some tests. So Pete decides to make Danny enter a "decathalon" as his tests, having him perform such activites as hurdling over sun-bathers, running races, and trying to swim long distances. As innocent as this sounds, at the heart of this is someone trying to convert someone else to a different religion because he believes that his religion is right! This has got to be treading some dangerous ground. But it turns out to be okay here because it's handled so adorably. You almost want to grab a teddy bear and cuddle while listening to them talk about religion.