Flipped

Does lightning ever strike twice?  There was a big tree in this film that could have drawn the lightning if it wasn't cut down?  Rob Reiner who made the coming of age story Stand By Me, tries his hand again at a story of young people but for some reason this little film just doesn't quite hit the high marks that were expected of it. 
It's not the cast either.  They all do a fantastic job.  The actors include Anthony Edwards (what a mongrel!), his wife Rebecca De Mornay (a long way from Risky Business), his Dad, John Mahoney and the neighbours Aiden Quinn and Penelope Ann Miller.  The two kids central to this movie are up and coming stars of the future Madeline Carroll and Australian Callan McAulliffe.  Keep an eye on these two!
The handling of the story is the problem, because it is a little slow and it keeps going over the same ground but from different character's perspectives, which frankly gets annoying.  Which is a shame really because it is quite a touching idea.
Bryce moves into a new neighbourhood as a young man and IMMEDIATELY makes the girl, Juli, who lives over the road fall in love with him.  Not that he did anything.  She's a little more mature than most kids her age.  She keeps chickens so she can sell the eggs and tries to protect trees, one in particular and loves to sit in it and look at the view.  She is a very deep thinker.
The spin to the story is that as Bryce grows up and starts to mature himself, he realises that Juli isn't as strange as he thought and that perhaps he has been making a huge mistake all his life. Trouble is, Juli has 'flipped' as well and come to the realisation that Bryce is shallow and not worthy of her love.  From that point, it's how Bryce tries to make amends for all the wrongs he has done.  And it is a tree that ultimately could bring them together.
This should have been a better film, and probably deserves to be seen by more people. It's not a great movie but it's not bad either. 6/10