INDIAN SUMMER

Camp director “Uncle Lou’s” impending retirement in INDIAN SUMMER brings eight thirty-something yuppies back to their favorite summer camp for a week of reminiscing, gross-out pranks, crisis intervention, and greeting card sentimentality. Each one has various life issues which come to a head during their week at camp. Some of these are: Matthew and Kelly’s faltering marriage; Brad’s inability to keep his mind off money; and Jennifer’s desire to rekindle a romance with Matthew. Some of the “tidy” resolutions by film’s end are the reconciliation between Matthew and Kelly and saving the camp from extinction as widow Beth and reformed rebel Jack (now lovers) volunteer to take over the camp’s operation.

But for a few good lines, a satisfying plot turn or two and some beautiful sights, we must endure far too many lame sight gags, raunchy language and stories, casual attitudes toward drugs and sex, and a lot of sentimentality. The writer cannot sustain enough believable and entertaining conversation to keep the campers afloat; and, the premise demands that eight upwardly mobile young adults are willing to spend a week reliving wake-up calls, icy swims and gross-out pranks because their experiences 20 years ago at were so meaningful. That notion seems harder to swallow than a char-broiled hamburger that just fell in the dirt.