This is certainly the case with Little Manhattan.  Some reviewers had mentioned that it was very nice.  The American Bishops Conference recommended it.  They listed it in their Top Ten Best Films for Families of 2005.  And they were right.

It is not the greatest film that ever was, but it has a lot going for it, especially for family audiences or, more specifically, families who have children around the ten mark.  Especially, if they have boys that age.

The screenplay was written by husband and wife team, Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin, with Levin directing his first feature.  However, he had long experience in writing the television series, The Wonder Years, which used a voiceover technique for the main character to explain not just what was happening but what he was thinking and feeling.  He uses the same device here to great effect.

This is a film about Gabe, a ten year old boy in New York City.  He is played so well by Josh Hutcherson, not only in acting but speaking the well-written voiceover.  He tells us how awful he and his basketball playing friends find girls.  But, then…  In his karate class, he is paired with Rosemary Telesco (newcomer Charlie Ray) whom he has known since kindergarten and soon he is smitten, in a very ten year old way.  So, the audience becomes Gabe’s confidante, privy to all his feelings, all his thoughts, his sense of inferiority at times, his amazement at how the thought of Rosemary affects him.

This is done in a wonderfully charming way.  In fact, it is also wonderful to see children on screen who are well-mannered, well-spoken and have a love and respect for their parents.  (Parents who go with their children to see Little Manhattan will be pleased with these young role models.)

The action takes place over a week before Rosemary has to go to summer camp.  It is nice to watch how Gabe and Rosemary get to know each other better, share discussions (though at times he wonders what on earth he is to say), argue whether girls become more mature than boys at their age.

There is a mini-crisis at one stage.  Rosemary’s parents are very well-off and have a beautiful apartment overlooking Central Park.  Her parents are affectionate and have adopted a little Chinese girl.  Gabe’s parents, on the other hand, began romantically (as we see in a flashback), but have drifted apart emotionally and do not communicate well.  However, they are living in the same apartment until the divorce proceedings are complete.  Rosemary’s family opens up another view of love and marriage for Gabe.

The children decide that they should help Gabe’s father find an apartment and go off without telling the truth about where they were.  They are found out.  There is a good scene where Gabe’s mother and father deal with it sensibly but with a proper sense of discipline.

When Rosemary invites Gabe to accompany her and her parents to a concert at a hotel, he dresses up for her very smartly but then takes the plunge and gives Rosemary a modest peck of a kiss goodnight.  For Gabe, this leads to upset and disaster that Rosemary might not like him any more.  And he howls with grief.  A good scene follows where Gabe’s father (The West Wing’s Bradley Whitford) explains how he and his wife (Cynthia Nixon) gradually stopped speaking and telling the truth to each other.  This inspires Gabe to find Rosemary and talk.  And it enables Dad to talk to Mum and come together again.

Wishful thinking?  Maybe.  But this is a very positive presentation of decent and deeper family values.

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