Unca Lou Handler (Alan Arkin) runs Camp Tamakwa in Algonquin Park, Ontario, Canada. He invites some of campers from the golden age of the camp. Matthew Berman (Vincent Spano) is married to Kelly (Julie Warner) and runs clothing company Roots with his cousin Brad Berman (Kevin Pollak). Jack Belston (Bill Paxton) is drifting and holding an old grudge. Jamie Ross (Matt Craven) is dating 21 year old Gwen Daugherty (Kimberly Williams-Paisley). Jennifer Morton (Elizabeth Perkins) is single and Beth Warden (Diane Lane) is still struggling after her husband's death a year ago. Stick Coder (Sam Raimi) is the bumbling handyman. The group reminisce about the past, pulling pranks and reconnecting with each other. However a dark episode from the past with counselor Sam Grover haunts Jack and Unca Lou. It's also the last summer for Lou who can't seem to connect with today's kids.Writer/director Mike Binder brings his childhood memories to the screen. It's 'The Big Chill' with a little bit of Meatballs. It's high on nostalgia especially for adults who had camp experience. It is a bunch of middle age white people who are reminiscing about their youth and that's the Big Chill part. I can do without the Roots product placement which takes me out of the movie sometimes. It's not as bad as Bud Light in Transformers but that's the worst of the lot. The story is nice and I like most of the actors. Sam Raimi tries to be funny and does his best. Alan Arkin is absolutely great. It's a very good time at camp and reminds me of my camp experience.

I still can't figure out why someone would think the premise of this movie is good enough to make a ninety-minute…movie. Considering it came from writer/director Mike Binder, the man behind "The Upside of Anger" and that this was his first film, I was drawn to it even when it was Matsan (and Tomilon) who rented it.Take a look at the title, "Indian Summer". Doesn't it sound like one of those movies they show on Fox Kids on a Sunday afternoon? And I'm not talking about the animated ones; I mean live action. Well, in fact, "Indian Summer" looks like one of those films and, even when it's bad, it finds a way to be not as bad. The issue is that a movie with a title like "Indian Summer", one would assume, should involve little children spending a summer pretending they are members of an Indian tribe or whatever. Guess what? Binder's film is exactly about that, except for one little detail: it involves adults. Adults that, as children, spent their summers pretending there were members of an Indian tribe and did all sorts of activities and played all sorts of games related to that. The reason why these adults get together for this 'Indian summer' has to do with the fact that Uncle Lou (Alan Arkin) is closing the camp that made them all happy as kids and wants them to join him for a last reunion. They're not a lot and they are written as stereotypes: the bad boy, the innocent guy, the daring girl, the joker; even the assistant of Uncle Lou, who's not in the main group but fulfills the role of the stupid man that can't complete any task and falls into the water in scenes that are everything but funny. As it has to be in a film of this type, some of them share a past: a forbidden love that could never be, an old rivalry…Some come with a burden from their present. Binder puts these adults together and makes this summer function as a 'therapy'. This is where I must assume that "Indian Summer" is highly autobiographical. How else could an original writer like Binder have fallen into the level of predictability and lack of emotion and, more importantly, interesting dialog this movie presents? How else could he have come up with the words and definitions Uncle Lou uses to refer to punishments and the different games and tribe names for that matter? If you've seen Binder's work, you would question this and try to defend him by saying that you know he could have perfectly invented all this things in an original context; but there's another fact that backs my assumption. During the whole film, the characters appear to be immerse in a world of their own; leaving the viewer completely out of their interaction. Matsan didn't feel it that way, but I can assure some things: you won't laugh at the jokes they make when they're together, neither you'll laugh with the repetition of some of them; you won't connect with any character because they won't let you. Binder feels so related with the experiences the characters are living, that he completely forgets about including the viewer in them. If you laugh, you'll laugh with images and actions but not with words; if you connect, you'll connect because there's a little of nostalgia inside all of us. That nostalgic feeling that Binder wants to transmit is the only message that gets through (and gets through the performance of Alan Arkin) and turns "Indian Summer" into something better than a terrible movie. Even if I didn't want to admit it; there's something about the first scene and the very last that you can't deny. That moose is saying something, because this time images and contemplation worked better for Binder than words. It still looks like one of those Fox Kids movies, though.

Indian Summer is a warm, multi-character film, that would make a fine afternoon film (with a bit of editing).The film begins in the past with a group of children being shown a moose, which sets the tone perfectly before cutting into the present, when a group of adults from the "golden age" of the camp are invited back again to spend a few weeks holiday by the head of the camp, Uncle Lou. The film then allows the viewer to spend time with these characters as they remember their times at the camp, and form new memories in their latest stay.The film succeeds in the great way it brings across its characters in this gorgeous setting, and allows them room to develop without having to worry about plot developments. Watching these people reminisce, and their relationships with each other is what the film is all about and why it works so well. It never goes to over the top and melodramatic, always keeping its warmth, charm and realism. I've never seen a film where nostalgia is captured so well, and found myself getting drawn in despite never having been to one of these camps as a child myself.For a warm, nostalgic character movie, I sincerely recommend.

This ensemble piece about adults who return to the formulative Summer camp of their youth was a very quiet entrant and exiter to the cinemas in the Autumn of 1993. I'd say that was a shame,but then again,some of the better movies ARE quiet releases that don't get much hype or praise.Diane LAne,Kevin Pollack,Elizabeth Perkins,Vincent Spano,Julie Warner,Bill Paxton,Kimberly Williams,Matt Craven and Alan Arkin(who is painfully good here) are the group of actors who flesh out these roles as people who have grown old with good,bad and funny memories of summers gone past. This film covers the gambit of emotions,mostly pleasant,and the film never hammers away at the viewer to feel what the characters are feeling,preferring to allow the viewer to enter into the memories on their own. Since I am a movie viewer who bristles at bluntly,brazen manipulation in films,this is something that I appreciate from writer/director Mike Binder.This film's a great cheap rent,a good main rent and even a pretty sit in a theater flick. You might run across this on TV,and I would definitely suggest a look-see.