Guest Blogger: Amy C1

From the man who directed Stand By Me and When Harry Met Sally, Rob Reiner returns with the 2010 movie Flipped, a charming film adaptation based on Wendelin Van Draanan’s novel Flipped. While the details of many movies that are adapted from books are unfortunately skewed, Flipped remains true to Van Draanan’s novel. Flipped portrays the blossoming love story of two adorable 6th graders named Bryce Loski and Juli Baker. Though the novel is set in the early 2000’s, Reiner skillfully adjusts the setting of the movie to the innocent era of the early 1960’s. By doing so, Reiner enhances the story’s nostalgic atmosphere, portraying the characters in plaid button-up shirts, innocent flowing dresses and surrounded by antique cars as well as basket wielding bicycles. Juli Baker is an ambitious and self-motivated girl who is instantly captivated by her new neighbor Bryce Loski. While Juli is swept into love by Bryce’s dazzling eyes, Bryce sees an obnoxious stalking girl. Thus begins Bryce’s plan of “strategic avoidance” and Juli’s plan of winning over Bryce. As the setting solidifies to when the kids are in 6th grade, we see events that cause both Bryce and Juli to not only contemplate about their prior opinions regarding each other, but also their own families. The roles of Juli Baker and Bryce Loski are perfectly portrayed by Madeline Carroll and Callan McAuliffe. Each of the actors are still in their early teenage years, thus contributing to the movie’s overall innocent atmosphere of when children first recognize love. Madeline Carroll’s character, Juli, is naturally confident, ambitious and introspective. One Juli’s most critical moments in the movie is when a beloved sycamore tree is cut down. Though she defiantly climbs the tree to prevent its death. Eventually, her father forces her off. This dramatically impacts her because being atop in the tree prompted her to analyze the components of her life. However she is now faced with trying to do so without the tree. Bryce, on the other hand, is perhaps the opposite of Juli. Bryce is easily influenced by the actions of others, especially his father. Bryce’s confused character and morals even leads Juli to label him as a coward. From the alternating perspectives of each character, it is obvious to see that the main theme of the movie is to not judge another person until actually attempting to understand that person. The movie implants this theme through the switching of narration between Bryce and Juli, as each character propels events in the plot with their own unique experience. Overall, Flipped received positive reviews from critics. Flipped was praised for its use of alternating perspectives as well as the clever casting of characters. While some critics failed to sympathize with the story’s emotional content, I found that the movie accurately depicted what young love was really like. Flipped is, by far, one of the best movies I’ve seen. It is sweet and genuine beyond belief and is a movie that I can repeatedly watch and not get sick of. I believe that Flipped is a movie that anyone will enjoy because of its refreshing characters, plot line and emotional appeal. It is a movie definitely worth watching.