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Stolen Summer

2002, Movie, PG-13, 90 mins

Stolen Summer: Review

STOLEN SUMMER
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Die-hard fans of Project Greenlight, the HBO documentary series that chronicled the making of an independent film, will probably want to see the finished product. Others will have to dig a little deeper for a good reason to bother with this competently directed but terminally cute drama about an eight-year-old boy and his spiritual quest. Chicago, 1976: Thanks to the stern warnings of Sister Leonora Mary (Peggy Roeder), freckle-faced, Irish-Catholic schoolboy Peter O'Malley (Adi Stein) is sure he's going to Hell unless he somehow discovers the true path to Jesus over summer vacation. His oldest brother, Patrick (Eddie Kaye Thomas), tells him about St. Peter, so Pete hits on a brilliant plan: He'll find a nice Jewish boy or girl and convert them to Catholicism; that way, everyone gets to go to Heaven. Pete sets up a "Free Lemonade/Free Trip to Heaven" stand on the steps of the local temple and befriends the avuncular Rabbi Jacobsen (Kevin Pollak — who else?) who disregards his congregation's disapproval; he thinks Pete presents a thought-provoking challenge to the devout. Rabbi Jacobsen has a son, Danny (Mike Weinberg), who's about the same age as Pete. After a fire breaks out in the Jacobsen's home and Pete's firefighter father, Joe (Aidan Quinn), saves Danny's life, the boys become fast friends. Danny is intrigued by the idea of Heaven, and agrees to undergo a decathlon of made-up "communion tests" — tests of physical rather than spiritual strength — that Pete hopes will somehow end in Danny's conversion. While the boys tirelessly — and tiresomely — pursue their salvation, a far more interesting subplot develops around the uneasy relationship between Rabbi Jacobsen and Joe, a proud, working-class hero who, along with his exhausted wife, Margaret (Bonnie Hunt), is trying to raise eight kids to be good, working-class Catholics. When Jacobsen approaches Joe with a gesture of thanks for saving Danny's life — a temple-sponsored scholarship that would enable Patrick to go to college — Joe explodes in a mixture of class resentment and anti-Semitism that's more honest than anything else in the film. The film is shamelessly presented by Miramax as "The Project Greenlight Movie," and writer-director Pete Jones's big break may ultimately prove a liability. Despite his apparent fondness for cloying, precocious children, he's obviously a filmmaker with talent, and it's unfortunate that his first effort is being touted as the incidental byproduct of a television series. leave a comment --Ken Fox
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Project Greenlight (Complete Series Plus Film Stolen Summer)
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