Scott Stowell This movie had such potential but the script was horrid. The acting was horribly stiff, especially the aunt's character. The actor who played Tommy appeared to be the only actor who has any acting chops and I was surprised to see that he has not had any other work outside of this movie. Frankly I still have not figured out what her role was in the movie. I really wanted to like this movie as the message is important but it just never got past bad acting, directing, and especially editing.The only good point of the movie was the music. There was some beautiful piano work in the movie.

gradyharp Jeff London wrote, directed, and produced this little Indie film, and had he assumed only one of the duties, the result would probably have been a much better movie. The running time is 115 minutes and could have easily been edited down to about 85 minutes by excluding the corniest 'homey scenes' with Aunt Lillian sharing pie recipes and girl talk that add nothing to the plot and only tire the viewer.David (Jesse Petrick) and his little brother Ricky (Anthony J. Domingues) have traveled with their divorced father Brian (Jeff Davis) from their big city home to Brian's beach hometown to visit Aunt Lillian (Phyllis Rodenberger) for the summer. As this seemingly happy family (though broken by divorce) settles in, and Brian reunites with his old buddy Tommy (Jeremy Douglas) who has taken in his younger brother Seth (Mathieu Smith) as a favor to his family, the reason for the change of home will be revealed later. As Brian and Tommy re-bond, both having losses in their lives since their boyhood, David and Seth get to know each other and gradually discover an attraction that goes beyond friendship. After a tender and quiet kiss at night on the beach, they acknowledge their attraction, only to be betrayed by the threat young Ricky poses as he declares he will inform David's father of his brother's perversion! The boys confront their feelings with the David's father and Seth's brother and find acceptance and unconditional love from families mature enough to accept them. Seth reveals his several month's history of 'rehabilitation clinic for gays' experience which led to his moving in with his brother Tommy and the bigotry and tragedy of that event solidly bonds all of the families during the summer referenced in the title.Much has been said about the amateur acting in this film, but for this viewer the acting on the part of the four main characters is not at all weak: the direction is flaccid and begs for focus and tightening of scenes that would have made the edited down version of this film a very moving story. An additional annoyance is the insipid music score (piano only) that breaks into 'Simple Gifts' at the most inappropriate time. But the message of acceptance of gay boys coming out is handled well and has enough original thought and subtlety to merit watching. Grady Harp

earthmoon75 Okay, despite what others are saying about this film, I found that the final outcome evoked the sweet, coming-of-age romantic feeling I was looking for. True, the film was slow to warm up, and the dialouge seemed flat a lot of times, and the acting of certain characters could have been better, but it was still a beautiful film about the budding love between two young guys. I found the character of Seth (Mathieu Smith) to be very warm. He's a gorgeous guy, and I noticed that not once in the film was his character mean to David. He was only loving, caring, and tender. I heard the budget for this film was like $2300. Whoever sees it expecting a movie with a budget like Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, Trick, or Brokeback Mountain, of course they will be disappointed. I also know the weather conditions were very poor during the filming of the movie, but they still managed to pull it off. I especially liked the outtakes (bloopers) section of the DVD. It was really entertaining. In all, knowing it was a low budget film, I thought it was a very sweet, humble, romantic film about the growing love between two lovable young guys.

twagsone If I had read the previous comments, I probably would not have bothered with this movie. This has to be the worst film I've ever suffered through. It made "Swept Away" look like a 5 star movie. The script and the acting was just dreadful. None of the actors were able to bring any life into their character. The subject matter had not dept. The plot did not build up and there was no climax. The entire movie was flat. If you want to see real life gay drama covering every issue imaginable, my number one recommendation is to rent Showtime's "Queer As Folk". You'll be hooked after the very first episode, and it does not disappoint. Another would be "Making Love", with Harry Hamlin. Now that was good!