Juli fell in love with Bryce when his family moved in across the street; they were both in the second grade and for the next six years, much to his chagrin, she chased him. Bryce thought Juli was a bit of an odd duck and he spent all of his time trying to avoid her until one day, in the eighth grade, he stopped running.
I love Rob Reiner's classic coming-of-age film, "Stand By Me," so I expected this movie to be similarly engaging, if not memorable. Unfortunately, it suffers from a weak and boring script, dull and stereotypical characters, and such slow pacing that I thought it would never end. Like "Stand," this story is set in the fifties, but there's nothing endearing or nostalgic about it; the era is poorly recreated and felt too contemporary. Each scene is seen and narrated from both Juli and Bryce's viewpoint and this gimmick gets old fast. I didn't believe these children would dissect every single thing the other did and said; it quickly became predictable and tedious and they sounded like obsessed 40-year olds.
All of the actors were competent but their characters were either dull or underdeveloped. They didn't do or say anything interesting, let alone cute or charming. This was a humorless and pointless snooze fest for me.
I love Rob Reiner's classic coming-of-age film, "Stand By Me," so I expected this movie to be similarly engaging, if not memorable. Unfortunately, it suffers from a weak and boring script, dull and stereotypical characters, and such slow pacing that I thought it would never end. Like "Stand," this story is set in the fifties, but there's nothing endearing or nostalgic about it; the era is poorly recreated and felt too contemporary. Each scene is seen and narrated from both Juli and Bryce's viewpoint and this gimmick gets old fast. I didn't believe these children would dissect every single thing the other did and said; it quickly became predictable and tedious and they sounded like obsessed 40-year olds.
All of the actors were competent but their characters were either dull or underdeveloped. They didn't do or say anything interesting, let alone cute or charming. This was a humorless and pointless snooze fest for me.