There were not many characters in this movie, and they are portrayed with a "rich-people-are-bad, poor-people-are-good" theme that is of course far too simplistic... But the main relationship between Devon and Trent just fascinates me and makes this movie a keeper in my book.
Possible spoilers ahead:
I like the way Devon keeps flip-flopping about who or what is "evil". First evil is some vague thing outside the gated community. Then the evil is in Trent's trailer. When she and Trent are becoming good friends, the evil is something that is after the two of them. When Devon kills the dog, suddenly Devon sees him as the evil one. And then when Trent is hurt, she changes her mind again. I remember being scared of adults when I was a kid, never knowing which ones I should trust or not, and so Devon's confusion rang true with me.
As for the friendship, it brought tears to my eyes over and over. Yes, girls are not and should not be encouraged to wander into the woods after strange men. But Devon was lonely for a FRIEND, and Trent was lonely for a FRIEND (as most men would be - the few perverts unfortunately give all men a bad name). Devon's interest was so simple and pure - I loved the scene when Trent cut his finger, for example. Devon's view of the friendship was a prepubescent one where sticking someone's finger in your mouth is platonic, but Trent as an adult of course saw reason to freak out. I like that this movie completely avoided the "I have a crush on you" scene that almost every movie involving a girl and a man throws in - there was no "crush" here, just true friendship.
This movie made me remember being a ten-eleven-twelve year old girl and romanticizing everything that happened, but in a romantic-innocent way instead of in the romantic-sexy way that hit five or six years later! That's part of what made me sniffle during the movie - life will just never look quite like that again I'm afraid...
Possible spoilers ahead:
I like the way Devon keeps flip-flopping about who or what is "evil". First evil is some vague thing outside the gated community. Then the evil is in Trent's trailer. When she and Trent are becoming good friends, the evil is something that is after the two of them. When Devon kills the dog, suddenly Devon sees him as the evil one. And then when Trent is hurt, she changes her mind again. I remember being scared of adults when I was a kid, never knowing which ones I should trust or not, and so Devon's confusion rang true with me.
As for the friendship, it brought tears to my eyes over and over. Yes, girls are not and should not be encouraged to wander into the woods after strange men. But Devon was lonely for a FRIEND, and Trent was lonely for a FRIEND (as most men would be - the few perverts unfortunately give all men a bad name). Devon's interest was so simple and pure - I loved the scene when Trent cut his finger, for example. Devon's view of the friendship was a prepubescent one where sticking someone's finger in your mouth is platonic, but Trent as an adult of course saw reason to freak out. I like that this movie completely avoided the "I have a crush on you" scene that almost every movie involving a girl and a man throws in - there was no "crush" here, just true friendship.
This movie made me remember being a ten-eleven-twelve year old girl and romanticizing everything that happened, but in a romantic-innocent way instead of in the romantic-sexy way that hit five or six years later! That's part of what made me sniffle during the movie - life will just never look quite like that again I'm afraid...