” DELIGHTFULLY NOSTALGIC ”
Starring: Madeline Carroll, Callan McAuliffe, Rebecca De Mornay, Anthony Edwards, John Mahoney and Penelope Ann Miller
Directed by: Rob Reiner
MPAA Rating: PG for language and some thematic material.
Genre: Family, Comedy and Teen
Running Time: 1hr 30 min
Distributed by: Warner Bros.
By John Delia
A sweet family film about innocence, puppy love and a whole lot of getting even has come to theatres just making it in before summer’s end. The movie is called Flipped and like the title ‘I’ve flipped over it.â€Â The movie has a heartwarming storyline, great soundtrack and stellar acting in every sense of the word. Flipped is a family film that everyone can enjoy and it’s my light and lively feel good film of the summer.
The film opens with 8-year-old Juli eyeing and glomming onto Bryce who is just moving into her neighborhood. As with most kids that age the boy is shyer than most girls and in this script it’s double the dose. Juli continues to flirt with Bryce in school and mentally attaches him as her boyfriend. As time goes on into their teenage years, Juli still has a crush, but Bryce wants to just be friends. There relationship takes a weird turn when Bryce starts to realize that Juli may just be the charm of his life. But, due to a series of uncontrollable circumstances, we find Bryce now after Juli’s affections.
Flipped has all the nostalgia of movies like The Sandlot (PG), Radio Days (PG), Brighton Beach Memoirs (PG-13) and the fun of young love in My Girl (PG); plus some excellent new acting faces that really shine under the guidance of consummate director Rob Reiner. And nostalgia isn’t new for Reiner making the Oscar nominated Stand By Me early on in his career. Here he takes a simple premise and turns it into an event. His characters are cute, smart, vulnerable and mostly with Juli very aggressive. He doesn’t make his film overly schmaltzy and when it comes to comedy he knows how to serve it up big.
It’s great to see Morgan Lilly again as I loved her performance in 2012 as the youngster who sees the world blowing up while her dad drags her around. In this
film she makes her character a ‘panic’ to deal with. The young Juli role is made for Lilly, perfectly cast for her charismatic screen presence. As for film screen newcomer Callan McAuliffe who dominates most of the film as teen Bryce, I feel he has a great career ahead. Reiner makes his character vulnerable to the advice of his closest friend and McAuliffe handles it very well.
Flipped is the perfect family film and is rated PG for language and some thematic material most of which, (except for the kissing) will go over the heads of your adolescents.
FINAL ANALYSIS: A cool and groovy look at young love in the 50’s. (4 of 5)