This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.

My six-year-old liked it, but I suspect children over eight will find it rather slow and tame compared with stuff like "Home Alone" (which I find rather offensive). Nothing to offend prudish parents here, no violence, bad language or supernatural events. Competent direction and camera-work so it did not look desperately low budget, though there were several sequences of kids walking or bicycling, or of moving cars or trains, which padded out the length to 90 mins without adding content. The young female lead was fresh and uncloying, but her cohorts were the usual stereotypes (fat boy, boffin, racial minority, etc).Lame plot, and maybe I dozed off and missed something, but the solution of the "mystery" seemed rather fortuitous.I give it 5 for children from 6 to 8, or for "old-fashioned" children a little older.