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The America of myth and legend seems to be the focus of Flipped, a coming-of-age story set in the early '60s.
The story concerns young love, and it's set in that perfect time and place that exists mostly in the imagination -- circa 1963, when men were men and middle-class women stayed home with their families and President Kennedy had not yet gone to Texas.
And everybody was white.
Into this perfect, pre-social upheaval world comes Bryce Loski, a boy of about eight or 10, moving into a new house with his family. The house is across the street from Juli Baker's house; the minute she sees Bryce, it's love at first sight.
Bryce (Callan McAuliffe) isn't quite so sure. Juli (Madeline Carroll) seems to be a bit of a pest, like most girls, and she eccentric, too -- she perches in a large tree in an attempt to thwart the workers who have come to cut it down. What a free thinker!
Time moves on. Bryce's grandfather (John Mahoney) comes to live with the family. He takes a shine to Juli and helps her with her garden. Juli is hard-working and smart, and she wins a prize at the school science fair by hatching chicks. Later, those chicks become hens, and Juli supplies her neighbours with eggs. At Bryce's house, the eggs just go into the garbage for a variety of socioeconomic reasons. It's just another source of conflict between Bryce and Juli. (This stuff likely plays better in the original novel by Wendelin Van Draanen.)
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Many incidents in the story of Bryce and Juli's relationship are told twice: Once from his point of view, and once from hers. It's cute, and it's a source of humour.
By the time middle school rolls around, Juli begins to wonder if she has outgrown Bryce; he, on the other hand, is suddenly smitten with her. It's quite a reversal. You won't care.
In the background to all this adolescent angst are the kids' families.
Juli's parents (Aiden Quinn and Penelope Ann Miller) are hard-working and artistic. Dad paints in his free time and Juli's brothers are musicians. Dad has a mentally disabled brother, who is trotted out briefly to add some pathos to the tale.
Bryce's parents (Rebecca De Mornay and Anthony Edwards) are perhaps more upwardly mobile; Bryce's dad is particularly judgmental. In the behaviour of the adults you get a glimmer or two of what this movie is actually about, but as none of these other characters is fully fleshed out, it doesn't much matter in the end.
Flipped ends up unfolding like a huge nostalgia piece, complete with a late '50s soundtrack that feels manipulative from the get-go. The performances from both Madeline Carroll and Callan McAuliffe are good, but wasted here.
This is a slow, pretty, one-dimensional undertaking. The story is free of any real conflict or depth -- it's just kind of big and shiny, not unlike an expensive Hallmark greeting card.