In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This movie is beautifully written and simply acted, with wonderful performances from the child actors bringing it to life. It deals with subtle and complex issues of faith and love, parenting, friendship and flat-out chutzpah. The character of the Rabbi, played by Kevin Pollack, is a joy. Stolen summer explores what faith means in action and who's got it right. Done from a child's questioning point of view it gets in to and away with some very tough and unresolvable issues. The kids treat the notion of getting in to heaven, whose God is right, what happens when you die- all as things you can actually ask about, and think about. The result is heartfelt and up to the end, wrenching in its honesty.The final scene of the movie has absolutely no connection to the rest of story. Or rather, it seeks to tie up every single thread and gives you all those answers, revealing in the final two minutes the nature of prayer and the meaning of faith. Predictably it comes out as shallow and baffling. Where did the movie go? The actors are wrenched from any connection to any part of the story leading up to that moment and left doing a Hallmark card. The scene reeks of a desperate move to appeal to some research-specified demographic, the implausible act of an executive justifying his salary by telling the writer what the story needs. Up until the Advent of Executives, this is a lovely movie, and a great story.

I thought that this movie was wonderful. Sure, you can tell that there wasn't a huge budget but it got it's point across. I thought that it's story line was not only great but believable. I think that it is a movie that everyone should watch. It will show you that people are people no matter what religion. Maybe if everyone saw it, there wouldn't be so much hate in this country. Pete's lesson is a great one for us all to learn.

This is a good outing for a first-time director. I saw the HBO series first and was quite surprised at how well this film turned out. The script is good; the subject matter is powerful. The actors turned out great performances. Quinn and Pollack both did outstanding jobs. I think a huge amount of credit needs to go to the crew on this film, but I think Pete Jones did a great job.

After watching the Project Greenlight series on HBO, I was really hoping that Pete Jones would pull it off and make an good movie. But the result of Ben Affleck & Matt Damon's media stunt is less the admirable. The problem is not with Pete's directing. Okay, it's rather bland, but it is not destructive to the film. What ruins it is Jones's childish screenplay. It's just so cliched it's almost unbearable. The dialogue is TV movie level, and Jones beats around the bush when it comes to the Religious stuff. He asks questions we've all heard before, and either doesn't answer them at all or provides a blow off answer. Also, not that I care (I'm an atheist), Jones seems to be a little too harsh on Jewish faith. Some scenes were borderline anti-semite. The child also actors were also terrible. As if the screenplay wasn't bad enough, we have to hear it repeated with no emotion by two blank faced kids. The film does however feature good performances from the rest of the cast. Aidan Quinn and Bonnie Hunt are given nothing of substance to work with, but like the pros they are, they handle what they have with grace and quality. Kevin Pollack's character was probably the only decently written character in the movie, and Jones was dead right to cast him. He is truly the exceptional element in this production. Some of his finest work.If you watched the docu-series, I'd recomend checking this out just to see what the result is. But don't expect any more than some good supporting actors.4/10* / * * * *