Summer Eleven

Well, this is not the movie everyone desire to watch by themselves unless someone suggest or forced to. I always take chances in under-rated, under-appreciated and b grade movies. So that is how my road led here to review what I found with my latest watch. First of all, this movie was made under a tight budget and each scene was carefully carved. So the production quality won't stand up to your expectations, but very much acceptable.

A beautiful drama with the series of most compelling messages. Of course, the reality is there though it lacked in good performances throughout. All the actors were fresh, (I am not sure that, but I did not find any familiar faces and with their performances I thought so) but the crew extracted the best possibly could get from them. Especially all the four girls were awesome. Each one of them was so peculiar from others. It is the story of them and the summer.

The four girls in their eleven on the summer holiday hangouts to have fun and prepare to face the middle school challenges. The narration splits and briefs each girl's family story with all the good and bad that occur. Between that, these girls never stop to group and enjoy the summer. Along making others look better who are in their sorrow and learns to encounter difficulties in life by themselves. A coming-of-age story.

It is a feel good movie. Families and women would like it more than young boys and men. Most of the people does not aware of this movie's existence, but now you do after reading this. So if you are qualified to see this like I mention in the above line then go for it without a next thought. Because you might know me in my many reviews with similar taste, if not just ignore. I wish I could recommend it for everyone, but you know movies are barred with genres and categories that splits the audience. To me it was a nice movie to watch once.

For what it is, it's perfect. It's not pretentious or sentimental or trying to be something it isn't. It makes no claim to be a film for kids as far as I can see, it's just a film about kids, facing real life situations, and managing them well. The adult players are integral to the story and there's a nice balance between the kids playing with other kids, and interacting with their far from perfect parents.

It scores high because it deals with happiness, sadness, success and grief in a realistic way, not getting bogged down with sentimentality or ramming 'important lessons' down our throats. I don't see why kids around the same age as the stars couldn't watch this, but as I said it certainly doesn't set out to be a film for kids. It's by no means hard-hitting, more quaint than edgy.

These four girls are all little stars and I'm surprised to see none of them have appeared in another movie. What their character show is is although we don't live in a perfect world, we can make our world perfect. Well done all of you :)

I actually loved this movie. I was just browsing through netflix when I came across this. I thought that it would be an easy going pre-teen based movie, where the girls get up to girly things. I thought it would be similar to 'An American Girl' movies, which I like to watch. However it was completely different. The movie didn't require a high budget or A-list actors to tell a good story about little girls experiencing big world problems. I really enjoyed the movie and thought that it was really gripping. All the girls were very nice to each other which also inspired me. They dealt with their problems in a very appropriate way which I admired.

I just gave it a straight ten, this film totally surprised and charmed me. It completely avoids any cliché that seems to perpetuate in so many girls films. In this film girls are so refreshingly _not_ the little self - centered gigglers whose main and only subject are boys, and main plot is _not_ around petty fight that two of them had.

There are some deep and challenging events for kids at that age in the plot, and yet the movie is never a *drama*. It is represented the way kids handle it - just like you rarely see a kid just blocked - they accept and move on. It may appear light hearted, an it is in a way, but that is because it remains true to that particular perspective - kids cope with certain events, ups or downs, better than the adults do (obviously, not talking about extremes now).

Another point that I loved about the movie is that I have miserably failed whenever I thought that I had a particular character all figured out. I didn't. I loved the Valerie Mahaffey performance - brilliant. Girls as well.

Well, first off, my IMDb account was created tonight just so I could vote for Summer Eleven.

Yesterday, my daughters saw this movie listed at Redbox and asked to see it; the review mentioned the movie was about four 11-year-olds the summer before entering middle school. I was a little hesitant since my girls are 8 and 6. We watched it together and were moved by the depth of the characters and the richness of their stories. When the movie was over, my 8-year-old and I kept saying, "That was Such a Good Movie!" As soon as my husband got home from work, the three of us couldn't wait to tell him we found a Great movie and to ask if he'd want to watch it the next night. We did. And we loved it even more.

This is a poignant film. I do feel that my girls got a wonderful glimpse into how rich friendship can be, and how compassion can make a difference.

When returning the movie, I wanted to keep it. But then thought, if I did, this wonderful gem wouldn't be available to the next patron. My family one day will have this in our movie library.

Eleven is the age of the four girls in Summer Eleven, however, one need not only be young in years to enjoy it.