I was amazed that this film was even made because it was like "A Christmas Story" meets "M" (with the Hardy Boys thrown in). A big mix of parent-cringing darkness and family fun.
This could have been phenomenal, but a couple of weird and stupid things happened. Most importantly, at times we'd go from daylight to darkness on a whim. Scenes would continue as if they were outrageously and illogically stretched over time. When Franky is trying to escape at the end this starts before twilight then suddenly it's 10pm. Ridiculous.
Spoiler follows:
What's worse, was the film needed an epilogue after the drawn out climax. It would have been great to see the husband who's wife shot the janitor, go and visit the surviving wife to apologize - as well as the rest of the town. And the movie should have finished where it began - at the cemetery with the adult Franky. Since we never returned to that, then it shouldn't have been part of the beginning.
This could have been phenomenal, but a couple of weird and stupid things happened. Most importantly, at times we'd go from daylight to darkness on a whim. Scenes would continue as if they were outrageously and illogically stretched over time. When Franky is trying to escape at the end this starts before twilight then suddenly it's 10pm. Ridiculous.
Spoiler follows:
What's worse, was the film needed an epilogue after the drawn out climax. It would have been great to see the husband who's wife shot the janitor, go and visit the surviving wife to apologize - as well as the rest of the town. And the movie should have finished where it began - at the cemetery with the adult Franky. Since we never returned to that, then it shouldn't have been part of the beginning.