E-Mail This Article to a Friend MEAN CREEK

Maybe my sensibilities have been coarsened by decades of movie violence, but I wanted to see the obnoxious bully in Mean Creek get his no matter what his problem was. If only to get him off the screen. If we overlook this glaring flaw (you need to develop some sympathy for the creep to believe in any moral dilemma), Jacob Aaron Estes’s first film is like an After School Special adaptation of Lord of the Flies or a kiddie version of Deliverance. Young Sam (Rory Culkin) is a nice kid, so he’s bewildered when schoolmate George (Joshua Peck) punches him out for no reason. Sam’s older brother, Rocky (Trevor Morgan), plots with his borderline sociopath buddy Marty (Scot Mechlowicz) to pay George back: they’ll lure him to go on a boat trip with the gang that will end in a humiliating surprise. En route, though, they undergo a reverse Heart of Darkness experience, tapping into tolerance and compassion instead of rage and hatred. All except for Marty, whom Mechlowicz plays with sinister pathos. He’s one reason to see the movie. Another is Carly Schroeder as Rory’s semi-girlfriend Millie, who proves to be the toughest of the bunch. As for Estes, he melts into platitudes in the end: this creek isn’t mean enough. (87 minutes)