PLOT: Adolescent friends stumble from innocence to experience after the death of a buddy.

The death of a child kick-starts the action in 12 And Holding, putting the film into a specific genre you might call horror-for-parents. It's a riveting movie, to be sure, but tough to watch.

12 And Holding concerns three kids who get abruptly shoved into adult life through this tragedy. The accelerated move from innocence to experience finds each of them wrestling with huge issues (love, mortality and revenge, for example) and finds each child endangered in one way or another. The story has its share of flaws, but nothing the excellent young cast can't overcome.

After her buddy's death, 12-year-old Malee (Zoe Weizenbaum, whose performance will leave you gobsmacked) starts fixating on a local construction worker. She has a bit of inside information on this man because he is a therapy patient of her mother (Annabella Sciorra). Malee fancies herself to be in love, understanding almost nothing of the man's fragile emotional state.

Jacob (Conor Donovan) is a child who believes himself to be partly responsible for the tragedy in the story.

What adults say in grief Jacob interprets as fact, and so he determines to seek revenge.

Leonard (Jesse Camacho) is a happy kid, but after his friend's death he has a heightened sense of his own mortality.

Leonard is seriously overweight, as is everyone in his family. First, he throws away his two younger sisters' Halloween candy. Then he tries a tough love dieting tactic on his mother that has unexpected results.

12 And Holding wisely serves up its drama with a side order of humour.

The children are precocious about some things and hopelessly naive about others, just like in real life, and the performances from Michael Cuesta's young cast are remarkable.

(The performances from the adults in the movie, Linus Roache, Jayne Atkinson and Marcia DeBonis among them, are likewise very strong.)

12 And Holding has a couple of false notes, particularly in the catastrophe pile-up near the end, but the good still far outweighs the bad.

This is a clear-eyed look at the treacherous turf between childhood and adult life.

BOTTOM LINE: Good writing and excellent performances make Twelve And Holding a standout. Just be warned that it's hugely anxiety-provoking to watch kids negotiating adult situations. We mean that in the best way, of course.

(This film is rated 14-A)
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