As an avid fan of Rider Strong especially in Boy Meets World which was mid-season one when this movie was released it is nice to see his range. As this is his first leading movie role I thing Strong did an excellent job portraying a character so completely opposite to what he was playing on Boy Meets World at the time. Anyway with that commentary out of the way here's my review.
Fredrick Egan the Third(Strong) finds out at the beginning of summer break that as his father is going out of town and leaving him on his own for based on context not the first time actually later in the movie Freddie
essentially say's that he's been getting foisted off on other people all of his life. So as his family is out of town he is supposedly being sent to a very expensive summer camp. Whereas Freddie Egan a street-smart teen con man is supposedly being sent to a juvenile work camp. Through a series of events beyond their control including but not limited to both boys being left on their own at the bus depot, both busses leaving from the same place at basically the same time and, their shared name the boys end up going to each others destinations. While both boys end up changing for the better due to their experiences and I enjoy Freddie Egan's(Weaver's) character growth at the rich camp due to being surrounded for the most part by people who like him for who he is and this affects his behavior. It is Freddie's(Strong's) character growth due to his time at the detention camp that brings me back to this movie over and over.
At first Freddie spends all his time at the camp either trying to bargain his way out or just complaining about the situation but over time he befriends three of his cohorts at the camp because they show him what it's like to have people who will be there for you no matter what. The conversation between Freddie and his mother truly shows his growth.
"Fredrick! What are you doing with this riffraff?"
"They're not riffraff mother, they're my friends."
"You are coming with me this instant back to where you belong."
"Hey, I belong with my friends. They were there for me when I needed them and even when I didn't which is more than I can say for you and Uncle Chuck."
"Frank!"
"Whatever." This whole conversation shows tremendous growth on his part. I love that the two basketball games Freddie played in essentially bookend the movie with him missing the foul shots and losing the game at the beginning and making the foul shots and winning the game at the end because the absolute, pure joy on his face when he scored the winning basket was beautiful.
This movie shows that even at like twelve Rider Strong was very good at showcasing genuine emotions and given the timing of this movie's release during the first season of Boy Meets World we as an audience are able to see him grow as an actor and a character who has to navigate many emotional minefields as that particular series progresses. This movie gave him a chance to play the complete opposite of his character on tv and showed that even at a young age he was able to reach emotional depths that adult actors even today sometimes have trouble with.
As much as I like this movie there are just a few glaring problems I see. First of all the whole bus mixup thing because I find it hard to believe that especially in Freddie Egan's case that the detention camp people wouldn't have had some kind of file with his picture in it to ensure that they had the right kid and as for Freddie's rich camp given how wealthy his father is I find it hard to believe that nobody that worked for the camp would know what Freddie really looked like seeing as for a camp with that many wealthy and important kids in attendance they would have done a background check and known they had the wrong Freddie. But because none of these things happen these boys are tossed around like hackysacks and nobody seems to care overmuch. Overall a great movie though.
Review of Summertime Switch
