Indeed, one of the things Siegel does best is allow his characters to be natural. Children are used in a few scenes and come across quite uncontrived. This seems a sure indication of Siegel's ability to allow his actors to take time and care and get things just right. There is an underlying ease to the film that washes over us much like the coastal tide that appears throughout the piece. Siegel also uses music well.
Pop songs pop up in the film here and there but always accentuate, never distract.
The most wonderful of these moments is the aforementioned title sequence where Frankie views a world of newly arrived, sexual shining adolescent bodies cruising the boulevard of her hometown. Frankie, dressed in her tomboyish overalls and without make-up to adorn her freckled face, notices, it seems, for the first time, the changing, sexually charged world around her. And this change is solidified by the sudden arrival of the seasonal visitors. Frankie, for all her wanderlust, finds a world to explore on her doorstep. It's a brilliant moment, perfectly conveyed that establishes exactly what kind of story we are about to see.