This was really a very poignant study of a girl who goes to spend a summer with her estranged father. How many of these revealing summer films have we been subjected to through the years, where people learn from each other during those 2 precious months together?Amazing that the film is as good as it is despite the fact that it is uneven in parts.Tim Matheson, as the father, has one of his best roles ever. When we first view him, his daughter has come for the summer before she heads off to college. Long divorced from her mother, Matheson is a handy man who drinks and seems to be resolute about life. He doesn't get along with his daughter and suddenly they're best friends. She learns how to fish, make signs and even lose her virginity that summer to a local boy. All is well and then suddenly a drunken Matheson slaps her and she is ready to leave again.Matheson's girlfriend suddenly assumes the role of counselor.Along with all of this, we have Ed Asner as a retired English teacher, a free spirit encouraging our young lady to read War and Peace.With it all, cliché up to the hilt, this movie is memorable as it deals with the human spirit and the discovery of fondness between father and daughter. There is a certain sadness that pervades us due to the fact that both father and daughter lost 11 precious years together. Nonetheless, the ending is revealing in itself.

This is one of those easy-going movies that one sits back and lets ooze into one's consciousness. The rest of this review assumes you've already read about the story and have a general idea of the plot.I haven't read De Guzman's novel, so I don't know whether to credit him (in creating the teleplay) or director Pillsbury, but what I think is worth observing here is the unusual technique used to abbreviate plot elements which otherwise could be cliché.To wit, several scenes are reduced to cinematic shorthand and are included, apparently, merely to propel the story and give brief cause for the scene which follows. This leaves the transitions a bit choppy, but what it achieves is that it reserves more space in the time allotted for lengthier interpersonal scenes which make the movie worthwhile for the viewer.Matheson and Bell come off well as the estranged father and daughter, he for one of his more sensitive roles, and she as a rising star and the future Veronica Mars.Further, I hadn't seen Sean Young on screen for many years; and, here, I liked what I saw. Maturity, methinks, becomes her.The one question I have about the movie, which I missed due to a commercial or something, is what happened to the Asner character, Auggie Sinclair? Did he just split town with no explanation, or what?Who are the king and queen of moonlight bay, you say? Watch it, if you get a chance, and find out.

My partner and I were watching this film on the Lifetime network and adding its memorable quotes to the empty section here at its IMDb page. We soon started giggling at the audacity in innocence. The film concerns a summer between the 17-year-old daughter of a late-40s drunkard Dad punctuated mostly by an overused Ad Asner as one of the colorful locals. Anyhow, the film totally reads as a very soft porn tape. The father has his girlfriend, and the daughter meets a neighbor boy, but the sexual lives of the two cannot but help to color their moments together: in his trailer, bobbing in the lake, up on a roof, etc. Kudos for the nerve of the writers. Aside from this campy subtext, the story is not at all dull. The guitar is clichéd, but the tale moves tenderly forward!

I just got done watching this movie tonight and i must say that this movie was very heart warming. I recommend everybody seeing it.. Its about this girl going to see her father and basically her father is a drunk and she inspires him to speak his own mind, to tell his feelings, which he couldnt do. If this movie was for sale i would buy it in a heart beat. So if you ever see it on t.v or if they ever release it, buy it, cause you wont regret it!