'Flipped'

I had the pleasure of watching 'Flipped' with my family without any knowledge whatsoever of the source material. I did, however, go into it well aware of director Rob Reiner's past work, such as 'Stand By Me,' one of my personal favorite films.

'Flipped' doesn't live up to the director's best work. The characters are likable enough, even if Bryce (played by Callan McAuliffe) is one of the more annoying male characters I've ever seen in a movie. In addition, the story itself is just a bit too squeaky-clean, which may open it up to unintentional comedy in certain scenes (like a Lifetime movie, just not as bad).

The strongest scenes come to us courtesy of Juli Baker, played in down-to-earth fashion by Madeline Carroll. In a film that seems full of characters that might as well have been taken from a cheesy Hallmark card, Juli is completely realistic, and she absolutely shines. I would have liked the film to focus on her rather than cut back to the lame Bryce for half the time.

While it has it's weaknesses, this is still a better "love story" than most of the awful romantic comedies you're likely to come across these days.

For the life of me, I can't understand why it wasn't given a wider distribution in U.S. theaters.