Alex Wheeler and her husband, Greg, are trying to find the right primary school for their four-year-old son Jake. The principal of his school explains that Jake's increasingly erratic behavior begins to cause a split between the couple because his non-sex toys may be more than a stage and relatively advanced.
Some of this material is too sensitive, granted, to have a very young actor play it. But "Jake" goes too far the other way, giving us only glimpses of the boy, who emerges as more of a symbol than a real child.
Feels more like playwriting than like screenwriting because we are told things in dialogue about Jake but barely ever get to see him behaving -- doesn't it signal the same kind of avoidance or fear that the movie itself is supposed to be about?
The movie's premise sounds like it should be the basis for a barbed satire of the finest proportions. Instead, it opts for a tone that is decidedly sober and lacking any kind of sharp edge.
