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Just perfect...

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Excellent but underrated film

I came to this film with no previous knowledge and no expectations, and I only knew about the involvement of Ben Afleck and Matt Damon when I saw their names in the opening credits. The film is generally harmless which uses the premise of a young catholic boy misguidedly trying to convert some Jewish people to Catholism. In the end the religions do not matter as the message is a message of togetherness and unity which can only be commended, however it is presented in a pretty saccharine way that Americans seem to love, and as usual in this manner even the poor do not seem that poor. The lead to boys are both okay in their roles as the main star of the film 'Patrick' is a bite ti cutesy for my liking but he handles the coming of age element okay. Other people have commented that there is an anti-Semitic element to this film but I did not see that and if anything I though the Jews came across better than the Catholics in the move. With nothing great to recommend it or nothing bad to put you off this film really is just mediocre. Would I watch it again, I do not think so but you may want to spend a rainy afternoon watching the film for the first time.

I can only assume that previous positive reviews for Stolen Summer were written by the director himself or members of his family because believe me this movie went beyond awful. The subject matter, a Catholic kid trying to convert Jews to Christianity in order to give them a fighting chance of getting into Heaven was offensive enough but the sheer ineptitude of the script, the banality of the dialogue and the sugary sweet ending beggared belief. Hampered by Pete Jones' near non existent direction the two child leads flounder in their attempts to bring their characters to life, at times displaying the kind of acting normally reserved for the average kindergarten Christmas play. Aiden Quinn, Bonnie Hunt and Kevin Pollack manfully struggle to bring some sort of class to the proceedings but this is clearly a ship beyond saving. During the Project Greenlight series Matt Damon voiced fears that the film could end up as the kind of feature normally reserved for the after school special slot. Stolen Summer should be so lucky. Project Greenlight was supposedly set up to give aspiring screenwriters and directors hitherto ignored by Hollywood, a helping hand up the career ladder. Instead it proved that any system which successfully prevents the likes of Pete Jones from selling scripts and making movies couldn't possibly be faulted. Avoid at all costs.

At first, I thought it was a really cute movie. Then I caught the theme....... any differences between Judiasm and Catholicism were either portrayed as bigotry, or were smoothed over, or were childish misunderstandings. Such as the "decathalon" to "earn" the privilege of Holy Communion. At first the misunderstandings were kind of cute, I guess, showing how the adults don't really stop to listen to the children, but it got extremely irritating, as it went on and on... and the misunderstandings just got worse and worse, to the point of "cute" blasphemy.Finally, at the end, the boy talks with his father, who comforts him by telling him that just like any father, God would welcome "Even an Eskimo who never heard of Him, as long as he lived a good life" - when the boy then (naturally) asks what use is it then to be Christian, the father has no real answer. Later the boy tells his friend the Rabbi that while on his "quest" he's figured out that Jesus is "just a symbol", and that it doesn't really matter if you pray to Jesus or not, because it doesn't matter which name you use, and suggests he use the name of Danny, the rabbi's dead son. So... another could have been good, totally cruddy movie... sad...relativism is the rule now, it seems... It's all good, it's all the same, or else we're "mean"... *sigh*

This is a remarkable little film. It has plenty of heart and a unique voice -- brilliant writing as well as characterizations by a talented cast. If you saw this film without any previous knowledge of the events that lead to its creation, you would consider it a minor masterpiece. That the people in charge of Project Greenlight continue to badmouth the very project that was their own brainchild (bad mouthing it on the second season of Project Greenlight, that is) seems incredibly two-faced... quite frankly, I don't see why any young, talented person would want to align themselves with that group of traitors. Their motto should be: "Come to us with your dreams and we will first mock you on national television, then let you think you've done something wonderful, then turn our backs on you and, finally, bad mouth you further on national television... putting a new spin on our attitude towards you -- and helping, in our own little way, to further insure that you will never work in film again." They really out to call the contest Project Stoplight.