Stolen Summer

Stolen Summer is a 2002 American drama film about a Catholic boy who befriends a terminally ill Jewish boy and tries to convert him, believing that it is the only way the Jewish boy will get to Heaven. Directed by first time writer/director Pete Jones, Stolen Summer is the first film produced for Project Greenlight, an independent film competition created by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, and sponsored by HBO.^[1] Project Greenlight aired on HBO as a documentary series chronicling the selection of Jones's script from approximately seven thousand entries, and the production of the film in Chicago in 2001.

Stolen Summer
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Pete Jones
Written by	Pete Jones
Produced by	Chris Moore Ben Affleck Matt Damon
Starring	Aidan Quinn Bonnie Hunt Kevin Pollak Brian Dennehy
Cinematography	Peter Biagi
Edited by	Gregg Featherman
Music by	Danny Lux
Distributed by	Miramax Films
Release date	March 22, 2002 (2002-03-22)
Running time	91 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1.8 million
Box office	$134,736

The film's casting department considered the casting of the Jewish Adi Stein as the Catholic Pete O'Malley, an ironic joke due to the characters attempting to convert a Jewish boy to Catholicism.^[2][3]

Cast

• Adi Stein as Pete O'Malley
• Mike Weinberg as Danny Jacobsen
• Aidan Quinn as Joe O'Malley
• Bonnie Hunt as Margaret O'Malley
• Kevin Pollak as Rabbi Jacobsen
• Brian Dennehy as Father Kelly
• Ryan Jonathan Kelley as Seamus O'Malley
• Eddie Kaye Thomas as Patrick O'Malley
• Will Malnati as Eddie O'Malley

Box office

The domestic total gross for the film was $134,726. Production costs were $1.8 million.^[4]

Critical reception

Rotten Tomatoes gave it a score of 36%. The site's critical consensus is, "Stolen Summer feels like a sugary after-school special stretched out to feature length." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 36 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

References

1. Stolen Summer New York Times.
2. Rohan, Virginia (March 20, 2002). "Faithful Portrayal; Jewish Boy Plays A Catholic Who Tries To Convert A Jew". The Record. pp. f10.
3. Arnold, Gary (May 10, 2002). "It's heartfelt; 'Summer' bonds families during a crisis over leukemia". Washington Times. pp. B05.
4. Box Office Mojo page for "Stolen Summer" (accessed February 23, 2007).

External links

• Stolen Summer at IMDb
• Stolen Summer at AllMovie
• Stolen Summer at Rotten Tomatoes