It’s always hardest to write a review about a movie when there’s nothing to criticize. Oh, yeah, there’s one thing: I should have recorded it. And a second: I don’t know if I ve been confusing this with another movie, or if I’m so desperate for romanticism that I’m projecting my fantasies, but I spent the whole movie waiting for the two boys to make out. And in fact, no, there’s actually nothing hinting to that. I don’t know where I got that from. Maybe from the fact that both were cute, besides being excellent actors and having very well-written parts.

Two teenagers end up sole survivors from a class trip, and give themselves one year to accomplish twelve tasks then commit suicide: it’s an original starting point, full of promises, but one that can also be spoiled in a billion different ways, and the fact that the movie is good is quite a miracle. I guess the best idea is to start easy: despite the tragical aspect of the suicide pact, the first half-hour is more of a comedy, centering around the easiest or weirdest tasks the boys start out with, and it only becomes serious afterwards. Thanks to the cheerful beginning, what comes next can afford to be sincerely touching, not too easy or artificial. The fun parts are quite fun, the moving parts are quite moving, the actors are perfect and the directing is quite appropriate.

Funny that user reviews of this movie on IMDb are very contrasted—love it or hate it. I guess you need to be subject to the Peter Pan syndrome in order to like it. And, well, if you aren’t, then why are you reading my blog?

Oh, and I’d just like to know how come the French adapters chose to translate the title to A summer to live it all, when the action spans between two new year’s days, as the original title implies.

Damn—if I had known, I’d have watched Band of Brothers.