Love That Boy

This is a lovely film about an overachieving girl named Phoebe who is weeks away from graduating from university. She has done almost everything from "foraging for wild mushrooms" to getting a "kayak certification", but has never had a boyfriend.

This is not by any means your average cheesy romantic comedy. It is modest in visual style, yet perfectly appropriate. Attention has been paid to Phoebe's many retro outfits, to a great script, and to perfect direction to the actors whose manner perfectly matches the tone of the film.

This film will leave you enchanted, content, and smiling. Andrea Dorfman has already created a signature style between this and her last film "Parsley Days".

Phoebe (Nadia Litz) is a 21 year old obsessively overachieving student. Her widely divergent interests are in her exceedingly quirky list of things to do before graduation from college. Her overbearing nature drives her one and only friend away. When the friend points out that she has never even had a boyfriend, she promptly puts it on the list. However, she's way too clueless to act like a normal human being. Then he starts talking to the 14 year old neighbor boy hired to mow her lawn. Meanwhile her friend is having a horrible time backpacking with a guy she met on the plane.

It's a quirky girl indie filmed in Halifax, Canada. Nadia Litz has a bit of charm. She's appealing enough to keep the movie interesting. I think they could probably get to the boy part of the movie faster, and get a better boy to play the part. The dialog and interactions between them is kind of stiff and awkward. If there is a good movie in this, it has to come from these two characters. I just don't think they have chemistry. The one notable actor is Ellen Page. She plays a neighbor kid who keeps trying to seduce the boy.

I'm still wondering where this little movie came from. A fabulous little picture about a woman obsessed and how she falls in love (something which turns her life upside down). The problem, the boy is 14, she's 21. As messed up as this sounds, this romance didn't look all that strange on screen. Nadia Litz plays the great role of Phoebe, a college student who has great plans for herself and a list of things to do before graduation. Adrien Dixon is great as the 14 year old love interest Frazer, but I think that the rally big steal of this picture is P.J. Crosby playing Bugs, Frazer's little sister. Great characters, filming and acting make this a thoroughly enjoyable picture well worth watching. 9/10

If Kate Hudson or Britanny Murphy played 'Phoebe' and starred in a Blockbuster version of "Love That Boy", then it would totally not compliment my taste in Hollywood sugarcoated flicks. The underrated actors, simplicity and low-budget style aids to the films cuteness and authenticity of what a Canadian director can do to make a low-scale production work, therefore it should stay preserved inside the boundaries of great Canadian film-making and should never be touched again.

Phoebe (Nadia Litz) determines the success of her college life on striving to win the year's "Most Outstanding Student Award". She grounds her priorities on a "to do" list in which she has to accomplish before she graduates. This list isolates Phoebe from her peers and prevents her from experiencing the typical partying life of a college student. Her single and more outgoing roommate, 'Robin' (Nikki Barnett) abandons Pheobe for the road to enlightenment with her new Buddhist friend, 'Kwan' (John Shurko). One of the tasks that Phoebe must do is find a boyfriend. Unexpectadley, Phoebe finds a fourteen year old friend to talk to, 'Frazer' (Adrien Dixon) and forms a deep friendship that is something more than just "hanging out".

Character development was well thought out. The annoyance of Nadia Litz who plays Phoebe was really irritating throughout the beginning of the film. At some certain points in the beginning, I wanted to kick my television set and throw it out the window. However, once she met Frazer she started to grow on me as the scenes progressed---a film never really did that to me before, and I was quite surprised! Usually when a film opens with an annoying character, the character still stays annoying towards the end of it. But Phoebe totally flipped 180. Adrien Dixon who played Frazer wasn't too bad either---it's good that he didn't come across as one of those typical horny teenagers looking for sex. Ahem, American Pie and Girl Next Door anyone?

Above all, one of the main reasons why I enjoyed this film was because I didn't expect much from it before I decided to watch it, however, I was impressed with the overall outcome after wards. Although it didn't have the greatest well-known actors, the best cinematography or screenplay, I saw a lot effort being put into the film. The soundtrack was great too.

Overall, 7/10

Phoebe is an overachieving college student, with a geeky strange personality. Her tastes are unusual, so she doesn't really fit into college life very well. Her goals in life are written down on pieces of paper, and she crosses them off as she achieves them; so really her ultimate goal in life is to achieve her goals in life. She has a roommate Robin who semi-tolerates her, but even Robin has her limits and eventually grows frustrated by her pompousness. One day Robin just decides to pack up and leave to go back to her home -- she'd basically rather be anywhere but couped up with Phoebe. Robin even feels that Phoebe is a bit obsessed with her; perhaps Phoebe is; Robin implies that Phoebe needs a boyfriend. Getting a boyfriend immediately becomes Phoebe's next entry in her goal-in-life list.

Unfortunately, Phoebe is a bit ill-equipped for this task. She meets guys randomly, things go well briefly, and then all of a sudden she decides to show them how much smarter she is than them and things don't progress any further. She has a friend in the 14-year old neighbor boy Frazier across the street, who she can be her natural self with. He doesn't mind her showing how much smarter she is than him, because he is 14 and she is 21, and so he already expects her to be smarter than him. But he's also pretty smart himself, somewhat wise for a 14 year old. Frazier has a younger sister Bug who provides a frantically geeky comedy relief -- she's more geeky than Phoebe. Phoebe asks Frazier to help her take her kayak classes (another one of her life goals), and a bond develops between them.

Meanwhile, Robin the ex-roommate decides to become a roommate again. Robin has had her own little misadventure across Canada during her trip home, so she decides to come back. When she gets back, she finds out about the little friendship/relationship that's developed between Frazier and Phoebe. So she decides to inject a little reality into Phoebe's life by letting her know that in the real-world 21 year-olds aren't supposed to date 14 year-olds. Phoebe says they aren't dating, but Robin says it still looks like they're dating. This sets up a moral dilemma in Phoebe that she wasn't even aware that she should be feeling up until that point.

How the movie ends, I won't tell you, check it out. I give it a 9/10.