This is an heart-warming movie. It reflects the innocence of young kids and tries to show their inner world when they are growing up getting them exposed to adult world.
The cast is good. Acting by lead character Abby Rider (Margaret Simon) is good. Rachel McAdams(Barbara Simon) and Kathy Bates(Sylvia Simon) are great as usual. Rest of the cast also do a good job.
The movie made me teary-eyed in couple of scenes(when Barbara meets her parents, when Margaret goes into confession room).
There are also moments in the movie which are situational funny. None of the characters are shown outright evil or outright good which is really good. Its easy to get carried away by portraying black/white pictures of characters rather than as human.
This movie portrays somewhat fairy-tale version of the kids growing up versus much more horrific/gut-wrenching tales. I am ok with it. We need all kinds of stories and we cannot compare one with other because life is such.
I was a bit taken aback a bit with too much sexual obsession of kids at age of 12(6th grade). Maybe its because I am from Asia. Maybe this movie reflects kids in American society more, I am not sure. Or maybe I am just too old-fashioned and need to grow-up a little :-). Anyway, taken in right spirit it enhances the movie's depth for sure.
One major nitpick is: If there were more intense scenes were Margaret really longs for God or her inner confusion/turmoil were portrayed better; maybe the movie would have gained more weight. But maybe it was intentional by director to not go there and that deep. Understandable.
It is not a masterpiece. But it's an warm, cute, heart-tugging, feel-good movie worth watching once.
The cast is good. Acting by lead character Abby Rider (Margaret Simon) is good. Rachel McAdams(Barbara Simon) and Kathy Bates(Sylvia Simon) are great as usual. Rest of the cast also do a good job.
The movie made me teary-eyed in couple of scenes(when Barbara meets her parents, when Margaret goes into confession room).
There are also moments in the movie which are situational funny. None of the characters are shown outright evil or outright good which is really good. Its easy to get carried away by portraying black/white pictures of characters rather than as human.
This movie portrays somewhat fairy-tale version of the kids growing up versus much more horrific/gut-wrenching tales. I am ok with it. We need all kinds of stories and we cannot compare one with other because life is such.
I was a bit taken aback a bit with too much sexual obsession of kids at age of 12(6th grade). Maybe its because I am from Asia. Maybe this movie reflects kids in American society more, I am not sure. Or maybe I am just too old-fashioned and need to grow-up a little :-). Anyway, taken in right spirit it enhances the movie's depth for sure.
One major nitpick is: If there were more intense scenes were Margaret really longs for God or her inner confusion/turmoil were portrayed better; maybe the movie would have gained more weight. But maybe it was intentional by director to not go there and that deep. Understandable.
It is not a masterpiece. But it's an warm, cute, heart-tugging, feel-good movie worth watching once.