Admirable as a young director's effort is, this movie doesn't quite make sense. First, the teenagers' dialogue is adult, using words, structures and concepts even the smartest teen would never even know, much less have in their active vocabulary. Furthermore, if they are that smart, why does George utterly lack introspection? The story does not convince me George would have been able to "get by" in a competitive Manhattan prep school for most of the year (or previous years, for that matter) on his cute smile, and had I not presumed the movie would have happy ending I would have expected him to kill himself at the next turn because he is so completely clueless and confused.
Second, the continuity is flawed, such as when a coffee cup appears in George's hands halfway through a scene in Riverside Park with Dustin, or George is wearing a different shirt as he and Sally run down the spiral stairs on their day of hooky from what he was wearing earlier in the same day. The director comments in the voice-over of the DVD how it is impossible to be consistent in locales in a low-budget film shot in a short time, so having scenes all over New York in the same series is forgivable, particularly since only New Yorkers would recognize that.
Third, it would be utterly impossible for even the smartest kid to make up in 3 weeks all the homework he had not done in a semester in high school. Write this off to poetic license, but I was not convinced by the story that George had somehow turned around as a result of his infatuation with Sally since he had not yet even admitted it to himself or to her; or was it because his mother had had to sell the apartment and pretty soon he wouldn't have anywhere else to crash? Once again, adult emotions are inconsistent with the adolescent mentality the writer/director is trying to convey.
That having been stated, what can you say about an adorable boy with cute dimples and his equally attractive girlfriend who are a delight to behold and whose acting ability is sensational? In fact the whole cast is beautifully consistent, probably the film's strongest feature. Only the story and the overdone script are weak. Freddie's grasp of the American accent is extraordinary, Emma's emotional grasp of her part is fine; but it's not fair to have the viewer presume they will live happily ever after in New York City having a high-school diploma even from a private school in their hands but no adult support system. I mean, gimme a break, arready.
Second, the continuity is flawed, such as when a coffee cup appears in George's hands halfway through a scene in Riverside Park with Dustin, or George is wearing a different shirt as he and Sally run down the spiral stairs on their day of hooky from what he was wearing earlier in the same day. The director comments in the voice-over of the DVD how it is impossible to be consistent in locales in a low-budget film shot in a short time, so having scenes all over New York in the same series is forgivable, particularly since only New Yorkers would recognize that.
Third, it would be utterly impossible for even the smartest kid to make up in 3 weeks all the homework he had not done in a semester in high school. Write this off to poetic license, but I was not convinced by the story that George had somehow turned around as a result of his infatuation with Sally since he had not yet even admitted it to himself or to her; or was it because his mother had had to sell the apartment and pretty soon he wouldn't have anywhere else to crash? Once again, adult emotions are inconsistent with the adolescent mentality the writer/director is trying to convey.
That having been stated, what can you say about an adorable boy with cute dimples and his equally attractive girlfriend who are a delight to behold and whose acting ability is sensational? In fact the whole cast is beautifully consistent, probably the film's strongest feature. Only the story and the overdone script are weak. Freddie's grasp of the American accent is extraordinary, Emma's emotional grasp of her part is fine; but it's not fair to have the viewer presume they will live happily ever after in New York City having a high-school diploma even from a private school in their hands but no adult support system. I mean, gimme a break, arready.