Teenager Lisa (Christine Parrish) has not been close with her brother Tony (Andrew Dismukes) in ten years, being children of divorced parents. Now, she’s got a chance to move back in with her father Frank (Asaf Ronen) and his new wife Doris (Danu Uribe) for a week or so during the summer while her mom, Rachel (Kim Lowery), heads off for vacation. Sharing the same room again, as they did when they were kids, the siblings hope to rekindle the fun of their past, with Tony introducing her to his pals while Lise longs to find some connection with her dad. Problem is, Tony starts to have some rather uncomfortable feelings for his sister, which strangely, sparks something in her as well.
Directed by David Howe, this awkward entry strives to be so, with the two gangly leads fumbling about in a story that runs the spectrum of cuddly adorability with gross out comedy (heavy stress on that last part). It’s sort of like an 80s rom-com leveled up for a more mature crowd, which I don’t think works quite so well as intended, unless it’s trying to be off-putting. Imagine conversations where a father, in one conversation with his teen daughter swings from tampon use to being called ‘Dad’ in bed while having sex. And that’s the light stuff in a film hovering around the pull of incest.
Howe likes to remind us of the honesty between Lisa and Tony, flashing back to their younger years often, where they played and caused mischief, romanticizing their memories in building toward the sexual chemistry that seems to be crackling between them. It’s a playful part of the story with Tony trying to handling his urges (and masturbation) while sneaking peaks at Lisa, who doesn’t help the situation by dealing with her own physical and emotional growth. However, whatever laughs might be prodded from the material is not balanced well with a backstory laced with parental abuse. It’s all very odd.
It’s easy at this point to be thinking the message here is totally wrong, and to be fair, the film seems to know it, too. Tony and Lisa really like each other as people but are trapped in maturing bodies that have them struggling with accompanying urges and no one else with whom to share those feelings. Worse, they are, by the strict demands of the script and cacophony of goofball side characters surrounding them, forced to spend time with general idiots, who fit all the stereotypes this genre comes front loaded with.
Unfortunately, it all doesn’t click as it should, knowing of course that it’s purposefully trying not to. Parrish and Dismukes are natural and even charming, their story grounded and properly fitted with some emotional connection that finds its footing. I liked nearly every moment these two were together knowing what was happening in their hearts. However, everything else feels a little false, with no believable supporting players and a host of unstable performances that leave this with few laughs and plenty of squirm. There is surely a crowd out there who will find the mix of coming-of-age tenderness and absurd raucous body humor appealing, so to them, here you go. I wish, given the set up and identifiable leads, it were something different.