Movie-Mean Creek

This 2004 movie was much better than I expected...I thought it would be watered down version of the intense parts of Stand By Me.

Instead Mean Creek was a small gem about kids and the cruelty they can inflict on each other. It takes a bully and looks into why he might be a bully...it looks at revenge gone wrong. And innocence suffering.

The bully, a big boy left back several grades in school pick on a smaller kid. That kid tells his big brother and his brother and makes plans to take revenge, without hurting the big kid. This involves several friends of the older brother, and the girlfriend of the smaller brother. And when it also involves a river boat trip, you know there is something going to go wrong.

I will not give away the plot, but all but one want to stop the plan to take revenge on the bully.

This was so good, and the kid actors were so spot on that I felt the confusion take over and the "child" leave each one as the ending played out. They looked like small grown-ups with their worry.