Coming of Age director?

Rating: 6/10 (17 February 2013)

Weird. I love coming of age films, but I thought this one was a self-conscious embarrassment, riddled with eye-rolling clichés, platitudes, and cartoon characters with no depth. In an apparent attempt at "seriousness", every troubling subject known to man was thrown in -- suicide, mental illness, sexual abuse of children -- but just thrown in, superficially, with no understanding or depth. Grossly sentimental. This feels like a coming of age film made by a coming of age director. There are many fine coming of age films that are authentic: Rob Reiner's Stand By Me, or Running on Empty, two wonderful examples. I cannot understand the overly high ratings of the viewers on IMDb for this one -- usually anything over 8.0 is a winner. I give it a generous 6 for a few good scenes and occasional good acting. Don't bother.