PhilPaine.com

This is an intel­li­gent film, with char­ac­ters much more com­plex than you would expect. A youth in sub­ur­ban Long Island, liv­ing with a wid­owed father, escapes bore­dom through his friend­ship and attrac­tion to a class­mate. He is too naive and unpre­pared to con­sum­mate the rela­tion­ship, though every­one who knows them assumes they have. The oth­er boy is actu­ally pret­ty creepy, and leads him into com­mit­ting bur­glar­ies. Because of one such bur­glary, he finds him­self in an emo­tional tug-of-war with an old­er man. The sto­ry is a melo­drama, but it does not fol­low the expect­ed for­mu­las. Act­ing, pro­duc­tion val­ues, and direc­tion are all first-rate. Paul Dano gives an excel­lent lead performance.