Flipped (film)

Flipped is a 2010 family film about the friendship between two seven year-olds that blossoms into something more.

8 out of 10 stars.  This film covers a bit of everything–childhood crushes, family duty, crushed dreams, and family dynamics.

Juliana Baker is seven years old when Bryce Losky moves into the house across the street.  For Julie it’s immediate infatuation.  For Bryce it’s annoyance.  Over the next four years Bryce will do everything he can to get rid of Julie’s affections, but she still considers him her best friend.

Then in seventh grade, when they both move to junior high, Bryce’s grandfather Chet comes to live with his family.  That year Julie falls in love with the giant Sycamore tree next to the bus stop.  Within weeks, the homeowners decide to chop down the tree and ask the city to remove it.  Julie is heartbroken and finally leaves Bryce alone.

In an effort to help Julie get over her depression, her father, who paints landscapes as a hobby, tells her that people are like landscapes–sometimes the sum of their parts is less or more than the whole view.  So Julie begins looking at Bryce that way.  As a whole he seems like the perfect boy.  But upon closer inspection he’s less than the sum of his parts.

That year Julie picks as her science project hatching six eggs into baby chicks.  She wins at the science fair and keeps her chickens who become egg-laying chickens.  Soon she has a thriving egg business and the neighbors are paying her for her eggs.  But Julie, who can’t seem to get over her crush on Bryce, brings his family eggs for free.  Bryce, who hates eggs thanks to seeing a snake devour one whole, convinces his family that her backyard (where the chickens are kept) is disgusting and covered in bird poop which could give them salmonella.  As a result he is tossing the eggs she brings into the garbage until she finally catches him.  And that, to Julie, is unforgivable.  Especially when he tells her why–because their yard is so disgusting.

Julie immediately begins cleaning up the yard and Bryce’s grandfather Chet helps.  They become fast friends because Julie reminds him of his dead wife.  Then one night when Bryce is insulting Julie’s family, Chet explains that the house is rented and the landlord is responsible for maintaining the yard, but he doesn’t.  Julie’s uncle is in a mental home which her father pays for, so every spare dime they have goes to the uncle’s care.  That makes Bryce change his mind about Julie.

At the end of the year is the basket boy auction.  (This is the late 60s early 70s.)  Bryce is chosen as one of the basket boys, number 9.  His best friend tells him that Julie has a wad of cash.  She actually hadn’t planned on bidding on Bryce or any of the other boys, but one of their neighbors paid her egg money on the way to school.  Bryce is sure Julie will bid on his basket, but she doesn’t.  She bids on the basket of number 8, a boy who is completely ignored.  During lunch, when the girls sit down with their basket boys and eat, he approaches Julie and tries to kiss her.  She goes running home and refuses to see him.

Then, to Julie’s surprise, he begins digging a hole in her beautifully kept yard.  She’s furious until her dad tells her he gave Bryce permission.  Then Bryce plants a sycamore tree in that hole.  She joins him and they become friends again.

8 out of 10 stars.  This is a charming film about family and friendship.