Children can be so cruel. The protagonists of Island Adventure are reminded of this in the opening scene. Howie (Chandler Canterbury) and Grace (Annalise Basso), 12, are stripped naked by their peers and left stranded on a small island a mile away from Camp Tall Pine, North Carolina. The game is a camp tradition that goes back generations. The targets are called "goats", which makes their abandonment site "Goat Island". Instead of returning to the group and suffering even more humiliation, the two decide to try to find their way home. The small journey of three days provokes an intense process of self-knowledge.
It's a children's story based on "The Goats," a best-selling young adult novel by Brock Cole that apparently contained darker elements. The generic title "Standing Up" (in the original) registers as a mildly inspiring yet familiar tale of teenagers facing bullying. The presence of familiar faces like Radha Mitchell and Val Kilmer might garner some interest for this low-budget effort from director D. J. Caruso (The Salton Sea), whose directing credits include the thrillers "Disturbia," "Eagle Eye" and "I Am Number Four." That makes it a family movie made by someone who doesn't normally make family movies. Announces this in the opening shot of the forest reflected in a solemn Grace's car window, which establishes this production as more polished and cinematic than you'd expect. It's not Hugo, but what is it?
After meeting, the two teenagers decide not to offer the attackers the expected diversion, Howie and Grace seize the opportunity, escape and break into a nearby cabin, where they find cookies and some ill-fitting clothes. Grace calls her newly divorced, hard-working mother (Radha Mitchell) asking to come home, but not knowing the extent of her torment, the mother urges the girl to stick it out for the second half of the six-week camp. Instead, the two good-natured young men try to survive on their own, accepting that circumstances require them to lie and steal a little to survive. Both embark on their own three-day adventure, awaiting the arrival of Grace's lawyer mother.
Seeing as how "Standing Up" tries to say something about bullying, however, in a roundabout way, it actually achieves this. At its most obvious level, it means standing up to a bully - don't put up with his cruelty and torment. It can also mean standing up for someone else. Even if the situation scares you, or the bully seems terribly intimidating, help someone else in need and don't sit idly by when someone is doing you harm. And finally, the title implies something deeper, more metaphorical about not letting the harsh words and actions of others make you fear the world, but coming out stronger from the experience.
All three of these connotations are represented in one way or another in this very familiar children's film, but the last one is the most interesting as it seems to be the overarching theme guiding and gluing this little summer camp adventure together. After being stripped naked and marooned on an island, Howie and Grace develop a solid, sometimes romantic bond as they decide never to return to camp and decide to trek through the islands and forests until Grace's mother (Radha Mitchell) can rescue them. On their journey, the pair come across another camp for troubled teens, learn to survive with their wits, and are picked up by a rather creepy Val Kilmer, playing a local cop driving a scary truck.
The humiliating experience is particularly hard on Grace, an incredibly shy girl, who dreams of someday working for NASA, but the stronger and more capable Howie hardly seems fazed by it, as if he's used to the torment and ridicule of others. She is incapable of telling the simplest lie to a hot dog vendor as he excuses her for stealing with clothes and holding onto the loot to someday repay it. With the police and camp counselors looking for them far and wide, the little runaways spend the night at another youth camp, where Howie not only defends himself, but also defends his new best friend from an overly aggressive older boy. Later, Grace finally learns to think carefully and say the right thing to get a free night at a motel.
Grace, whose real name is Shadow Golden, is interested in becoming an astronaut and wanted to attend space camp. Howie claims his archaeologist parents are working in Greece. The two don't even exchange names until an hour into the movie and this could easily have been a cute joke, but instead it's a believable touch that conveys the different social language the kids speak. The movie's strangest turn involves Perry Hofstadder (Val Kilmer), a creepy man who may or may not be a deputy sheriff, whom the kids regret reluctantly accepting a ride. There's also a strange kid at Camp Evergreen, apparently designed to honor Kilmer with a Top Gun-style bite for his advances on Grace. These are the rare notes you can question in a film full of desperation driving its young characters to commit dangerous and criminal acts.
It doesn't take long for audiences to discover that the two kids are doing a lot more than just running away from camp or seeing the kids who played a cruel joke on them. The emotional drama that punctuates this short road movie is also where Canterbury and Basso really shine, displaying a remarkable level of maturity and depth in some scenes. Basso's cowardice, fear, and lack of self-confidence are related to her having no friends and dealing with divorced parents. Canterbury's wit and intrepidity come from growing up with archaeologist parents, but it's clear the boy is keeping secrets. However, this is where the film's title suggests a broader metaphorical theme, as children learn to deal with personal issues.
But while its theme of youth empowerment inevitably strikes an emotional chord, the film never quite manages to achieve any dramatic steam, dragging along in a mildly amusing but essentially bland way. That it works as it does is largely due to the appeal of its young lead actors, who vividly convey their characters' growing confidence and emotional bond as they endure their shared pains. Devoid of humor or the sense of menace that would make the process more emotionally involved, "Standing Up" represents a missed opportunity. Even your younger target audience is unlikely to respond with anything more than mild indifference.
Despite the whole bullying thing being what's talked about when it comes to this movie, thankfully it's not really the main focus. In any case, "Standing Up" reminds you that, as much as bullying is a problem among peers, part of the problem is not just the child's age bully, but the parents who are also the bullies. However, while the theme of bullying is part of the film, the real focus is Grace and Howie's journey, in which Basso and Canterbury really display a nice emotional complexion that is often lacking in teenage characters. Although children are often part of stories in which dramatic, nay, traumatic things happen, they are usually cast in a supporting role, so while their feelings are present, they are often secondary.
With "Standing Up", however, you can see these two young people portraying the trauma of being ostracized, the awkwardness of receiving kindness from a stranger and even watching them become interdependent is strange, but at the same time fun. Basso, for example, grows as a character from a fearful and insecure girl to a girl who seems to have learned what confidence is, and while Howie certainly helped, at the same time you can't say that what she learns is entirely based on her adventure. With the boy. As for Canterbury, the young man shows the same kind of emotional depth that is important to the character.
This is a movie about children that seems to be more appreciated by adults. Children generally prefer movies that entertain them to movies that make them think. "Standing Up" isn't an art house movie, but neither is it the movie equivalent of a Nickelodeon or Disney Channel original. It feels much closer in spirit to the kinds of kids' movies Caruso would have grown up watching. The main characters are well defined and are given interesting traits and backstories, far beyond the thick, oversized glasses each is introduced with. Beautifully photographed by Alex Nepomniaschy, "Standing Up" transitions visually and thematically from the dark recesses of the cabin where Howie and Grace first meet to the wide, gold-lit trail where their adventure ends - their shyness and fear replaced. For trust and friendship. But with one of the book's most harrowing incidents eliminated and Howie robbing Grace of the opportunity to show resourcefulness, the film avoids punishing her arrogance, opting instead for self-realization of well-being.
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