Flipped

If good intentions and warm fuzzy feelings equaled great cinema, then Rob Reiner’s gooey adolescent dramedy Flipped would be this generation’s Graduate. Based on the Wendelin Van Draanen novel (but backdated to the early 1960s for maximum pop-song schmaltz-stalgia), Flipped tells the story of the long-gestating revulsion/romance between across-the-street neighbors Juli and Bryce (played by different child actors at various ages, but mostly by junior-high-aged Madeline Carroll and Callan McAuliffe), who come from very different families (cue moral righteousness). Flipped is the sort of film that brags about winning the “Heartland Truly Moving Picture Award” (what an honor!) on its poster, and it’s also so overrun with clumsy and pointless narration that it makes The Wonder Years look like The Last Laugh. Suffice to say the target audience for Flipped is significantly less cynical than this reviewer.