Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

The Age of Commercialism

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

I saw this movie without a clue what it was about. I had just been given the cover and glanced at the front, believing it to be a comedy in the likes of American Pie and such.Well, after getting over the initial surprise about what this movie was actually about, I found it to be nice anyway. It tells a good story and you can easily follow the characters and understand their personalities.The cast was good and it had some nice supporting roles as well. Especially the parents, they were well cast and did a great job bringing their roles to life.The movie is uplifting and have fun moments, but I don't believe it is the type of movie that you will watch more than once.

I don't remember why I ordered this movie from Netflix, but it turned out to be on a whole other level from what I expected. And this surprise is what several reviewers have already mentioned.My neighbor and I watched it together and found our views very similar. I don't need to go into the plot as it was well covered in other reviews, but I wanted to add these particular notes.(1) I was at first concerned that the film would have the teacher-pupil relationship become sticky. I suppose I wouldn't have minded, but the story has been done so many times. It was delightfully refreshing to have the teacher act like a real teacher would with Emerson.(2) The movie was easy to understand, and identify with, showing parallel stories of everyone going through their own sea-churning bouts of relationship trips. This was handled so well. What we particularly liked was that the writers/director felt no need to over indulge their scenarios with dialogue that the viewers already knew. An example of this feature was when the police came after one of the characters and this was explained simply by showing lights flashing through a door.(3) In this vein, therefore, it was truly delightful to get to the end of the movie and to have all the loose ends tied up in one scene! We loved that particularly. Instead of going through all the repetitive scenes of how Aaron deals with his parents or his crush, he is depicted in a scene which shows us that he is coping with the normal ebbs and flows of growing up. And then, through one smile about tea bags, another relationship is redefined. Perfect. Needless to say, we loved everyone in the cast, but Aaron did stand out. We hope he continues to bring his boyish maturity to the new roles he will doubtless be offered.

Wow, this is a really thoughtful, well-made coming-of-age film. With a sea of dreck in this genre flooding the market, it is refreshing to see such a well written, sincerely performed narrative that feels so real and personal. Set in snowy Nova Scotia, the story of a bookish 13 year old named Emerson falling in love with his male school teacher (who is gay), might easily veer toward the distasteful, but this film never does. The performances are honest and heartfelt and the storyline goes to some unexpected places, contributing nicely to it's indy feel. There are a few moments that might have been more thoroughly explored (Emerson's relationship with an geeky school friend, the obvious direction of his awakening sexuality, is given short shrift.) But overall, this was an intelligently made, sweet and sincere film about human relationships - something that we can never have enough of.

I loved this movie - it's a good, simple, both touching and amusing story - very Canadian (that's a good thing in my book, even though I'm a separatist!). It's also great to see plots taking place outside of the usual larger cities. Cudos to all involved. But... once more, it makes me think of how frustrating it is that Canadian movies almost never make it to Québec's movie screens (I'm writing from Montréal). I once complained about this in writing to our former Ministre du Patrimoine Sheila Copps - after watching the Genies one night, not having seen any of the Canadian films in competition, as they hadn't been distributed in Québec yet! One would think that the federal government, always out to promote Canadian culture and unity, might want to do something about this! We, in Québec, are so proud of our cinema and often look down upon the R.O.C.'s production - but that's so wrong! Canada has great movie makers - but poor distribution and promotion methods and means, sadly!