Growing up can be very hard. You go to school, you struggle to fit in and meet the expectations of those around you, and every once in a while tragedy strikes that a 12-year-old is ill-equipped to handle. This is the story of a group of young friends who enjoy playing in the woods behind their houses and have even built a tree house there. When Rudy Carges (Conor Donovan) angers the local bullies who threaten to burn down their tree house in the middle of the night he is determined to protect it along with his friend Leonard (Jesse Camacho)…but sometime during the night the two fall asleep, giving them no warning when flaming bottles of gasoline come flying through the window.

Leonard barely escapes but Rudy never makes it out of the tree house. Rudy’s twin brother Jacob (also played by Donovan), who is easily distinguishable from his brother by the dark birthmark that conceals half his face, is suddenly thrown into a reality without his brother. Wracked with guilt for not going with him that night, Jacob finds himself wondering if his parents would have rathered he were the one to die.

Throughout this bleak tale you’ll see each child coming to terms with this loss combined with their personal challenges in unique ways. For Leonard it consists of dealing with his self-loathing about being severely overweight…and literally forcing his bitter mother to do the same. For Malee (Zoe Weizenbaum), another close friend who is also trying to deal with her father’s absence and indifference, it means fixing her attentions on a man in his 20s with questionable character (Jeremy Renner, Love Comes to the Executioner, Dahmer). Finally, for Jacob it’s fighting for his parents’ affection and reassurance that they are glad he’s still alive…as well as dealing with a newly-adopted brother and trying to make what he sees as his mother’s fondest wish come true. As the group’s beloved woods is destroyed to make way for further development so their childhoods are brutally and effectively taken away from each one.

If you haven’t guessed already this movie is the exact opposite of a “feel good” film. You’ll find a film so thoroughly depressing you may not be able to believe someone could come up with something like this about middle school-aged children, but at the same time it’s fascinating for its uniqueness and the artifice with which it shows some of the worst scenarios in a person’s young life. If you’re someone who cringes at the term “coming of age film” this might just be the kind of coming-of-age flick you’d enjoy…and leave you wondering if any one of these kids will go on to lead a “normal” life.

The thing that really jumped out at me about this particular movie was the acting…you’d think a film where all of the main characters are 14-year-olds might not be the greatest for performance, but you’d be wrong. I expect to see each one of these kids go a long way with their acting careers (you can catch a glimpse of Donovan in The Departed). With backup actors like Renner, Tom McGowan and Anabella Sciorra you can bet there’s something there to see.

Overall this movie is definitely not for everyone and not something I’d re-watch very often (though sometimes, yes) just because of its bleak material and difficult story line (after all, no one wants to think about the possibility of losing a child) but for quality of acting and an extremely well-done script this is definitely worth watching at least once.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age