Two New York City girls, Lily Berger and Gerry are home for their last summer outside high school strike a deal to lose their virginity before going to college. They end up seeing the same artist living on their street, putting their bond to test.
Despite a finely wrought lead performance by Dakota Fanning, the drama feels more like the stuff of a mild - and dated - YA novel than an involving exploration of female experience.
One insurmountable problem is that the stars, especially Ms. Olsen, 25, are too old for their roles. Another is that the movie has more characters than it can begin to accommodate in 91 minutes.
Disappointingly, Foner's young heroines are defined primarily by their reactions to other people. It's a great credit to Olsen and, especially, Fanning that they manage to make these characters vibrant and sympathetic anyway.
Will any film this year feature a moment more pretentious than David asking Lily to read a few lines of Sylvia Plath's poetry before their first kiss? That guy deserves a smack to the kisser all right.
