I can only assume that previous positive reviews for Stolen Summer were written by the director himself or members of his family because believe me this movie went beyond awful. The subject matter, a Catholic kid trying to convert Jews to Christianity in order to give them a fighting chance of getting into Heaven was offensive enough but the sheer ineptitude of the script, the banality of the dialogue and the sugary sweet ending beggared belief. Hampered by Pete Jones' near non existent direction the two child leads flounder in their attempts to bring their characters to life, at times displaying the kind of acting normally reserved for the average kindergarten Christmas play. Aiden Quinn, Bonnie Hunt and Kevin Pollack manfully struggle to bring some sort of class to the proceedings but this is clearly a ship beyond saving. During the Project Greenlight series Matt Damon voiced fears that the film could end up as the kind of feature normally reserved for the after school special slot. Stolen Summer should be so lucky. Project Greenlight was supposedly set up to give aspiring screenwriters and directors hitherto ignored by Hollywood, a helping hand up the career ladder. Instead it proved that any system which successfully prevents the likes of Pete Jones from selling scripts and making movies couldn't possibly be faulted. Avoid at all costs.

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 movie was a wonderful movie until the last ten minutes when it falls completely flat on its face. The movie examines the unique and heartfelt friendship between the young son of an angry Irish Catholic and the young son of a Jewish Rabbi. Not only are the characters deeply explored, their differing faiths are thoughtfully examined throughout the film. It's a shame that the "powers that be" had to fold in the last ten minutes and give viewers bogus wishy-washy so-called theology that proves moviemakers are still afraid of moral absolutes. What a shame. Bonnie Hunt was so convincing as the dutiful wife and loving mother I wanted to adopt her. Kevin Pollak was incredible as the agonized father living with terminal illness.

Despite what you may have seen on project greenlight that would depict this film as a film that was not put together well and full of problems, it's not. This film is one of those rare films that invokes some feeling and those are always good in my book. Whether you have or haven't heard of project greenlight, rent this film.