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Good movie but grossly overrated

best movie i've ever seen.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

A stranger drives into a small sleepy town (flashback mode) promising to build a model of the town for its upcoming 250th year celebration. He uses two boys to help him take photographs, one Devon Gearhart, who was excellent in another little known art-house film, "Canvas". What begins somewhat like a sweet family film, turns out to have a darker side, and like other reviewers have mentioned, a fantasy element not unlike a Twilight Zone episode, or even more like Bradbury's "Something Wicked This Way Comes". This is the directors first full length film, and while it is quite good, it ambles along and seems to lack focus as to what the story is trying to say. When it finally comes clearer in the final 15 or 20 minutes, it has some interesting revelations, some Christian elements of retribution for sinful behaviors, and a very touching scene just before the end in a soda fountain about the loss of innocence, which for me made the earlier shortcomings almost irrelevant. There is a folksy quality to the flashback scenes, which comprise the majority of the movie, while the today scenes with the now grownup Philip, are darker in mood and showing virtual total devastation of the town. The movie is filmed in Edenton, North Carolina, a beautiful small historic town on the Albemarle Bay, which adds to the excellent cinematography. This is not a movie for the action crowd, but if you are a fan of Ray Bradbury, as I am, I think you will find this film well worth your time. Just keep in mind that it is the director's first full length effort and cut him a little slack.

Coming of age memory tale concerning a man who returns to his home town before it's flooded for a power project in order to try to come to terms with the past. He remembers back to the summer when a mysterious stranger comes to town and forced him to grow up and the town to see itself for what it was. It's magical realism of the sort that Ray Bradbury or the Twilight Zone did so well. Here its done well but unfortunately it stretched to probably twice the length it should be. I know that had the film been shorter it would never have gone anywhere but at the same time I don't really think that this works as well as long as it is. More so with the several of the dark turns happening with no real pay off including one death, the one that ends our hero's childhood, happening before we simply move to the next thing. I'm sure that the build up was supposed to make up for it, but for me it just sort of fell flat. I kind of felt the same way that the people seeing the finished model that Cottonmouth makes feel. Worth a look but I'd wait for cable.

We live in eastern NC and saw this movie at the theater. What a special film! I heard the director say that this was his first film but it sure did not seem like that. He pulled a great performance out of the child actors and you could tell that Will Patton (one of our favorites) really brought his 'A' game. This movie is a really special coming of age film that really had us thinking.A great message... and interesting story...It kind of reminded us of Ray Bradbury story... almost like Dandelion Wine... More than anything, it captured the laid back pace of a small southern town. This is a great 1st film.

This was a good coming of age/growing up and life changing type film but more in depth about what and how the changes came about. The odd stranger that comes to the small town gives the boys a new way to look at people and things. He guides them. The way the boys perceive the town and how the stranger does also changes the town. It comes full circle for one of the boys as he loses part of his childlike hope and youthfulness in a way but is able to get it back when he comes to understand the things that occurred during that time about that particular summer and small town life.The time period was transcendent but it worked.The story was great and could have happened in any time period.The Cinematography was great and it was shot in 35mm film.The look was marvelous. It was nice that it was not all digital like so many movies. The area they filmed in had a great look and feel. It was a very interesting movie and a bit twilight zone like but not overly.I hope this breaks out of the Indie roll as it was an outstanding movie.