FLIPPED

2010 / Director. Rob Reiner.
Review by Glenn Cochrane.

I have always admired director Rob Reiner. He hasn't always hit the spot but his impressive career speaks for itself with amazing titles like STAND BY ME, WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, MISERY, A FEW GOOD MEN amongst others. In between THE BUCKET LIST and THE MAGIC OF BELLE ISLE he slipped in this wonderful and understated film, FLIPPED. It managed to elude all of my receptors and 3 years passed before I discovered it. Set in the early 1960s it tells the story of two teenagers who live across the road from each other and have been infatuated since pre-school. As teenagers do, they awkwardly skirt around their affection with miscommunications, fall-outs and misunderstandings. His family is conservative while hers is liberal and the two clueless lovebirds learn to navigate their way through conflicting ideals and morals in order to develop into free thinking individuals. It is a fantastic coming of age story and Rob Reiner is not stranger to these themes. He handles them brilliantly. The title of the film reflects the nature of the narrative as almost every scene is told from each of their perspectives. Telling the story twice could have been disastrous but two perspectives are supported with a well managed narration and it works really well. It's never laborious. The lead teenagers are excellent and their adult support, which includes Rebecca DeMornay, Anthony Edwards, Penelope Ann Miller, Aiden Quinn and John Mahoney, is steller. If you love films with nostalgia and a touch of melodrama then FLIPPED is an excellent pick. I've seen it twice now and was surprised to find myself swept up by it more the second time round. It's good stuff and worthy of more attention. 

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