Stolen Summer

Aroview: The resultant product of a film-making competition in which a novice screenwriter won a chance to direct his own script, this is a respectable if conservative effort – a coming-of-age drama about faith, family, prejudice and understanding.

Not nearly the “train wreck” it almost promised to be (as chronicled in the documentary PROJECT GREENLIGHT – where the drama really lies), this is best seen in the context of which it was made, otherwise it’s a familiar, straight-ahead yarn about an Irish Catholic growing up in 1970s Chicago, whose friendship with a Jewish boy challenges his faith and the authority of his father. Sure, it might be cut from the same cloth as a “Waltons” episode, but it’s heartfelt and technically well acquitted, and will especially engage those that have yet to come of age.