12 AND HOLDING

Luckily, 12 and Holding handles its edgy material with such intelligence and grace that you don't find yourself covering your eyes and squirming in your seat.

Ever since Kids came out, I've been a little leery of movies about children losing their innocence. Like are the kids going to go through a life changing experience à la Stand By Me, or are we going to watch them have sex and do drugs right in front of us? Luckily, 12 and Holding handles its edgy material with such intelligence and grace that you don't find yourself covering your eyes and squirming in your seat. There's still plenty to flinch at, but only because you feel for the characters, the choices they make, and the events that unfold.

Twelve-year-old Jacob Carges (Conor Donovan) has a port-wine stain over half his face, and often wears a Friday the 13th mask to cover it up, er, look bad-ass. Though Jacob is constantly tormented by bullies, his twin brother, Rudy, is always there to back him up. They cross a line, however, when they pour a bucket of piss onto the bullies' heads. The bullies vow to destroy their treehouse, so Rudy and his chubby friend Leonard (Jesse Camacho) camp out to protect it. When the bullies fling Molotov cocktails into the treehouse, they are shocked to find the boys inside. They never intended to hurt anyone, but Rudy dies in the terrible fire, and Leonard falls from the tree and loses his sense of taste and smell. From that moment on, nothing will ever be the same.

The loss of Rudy is felt most deeply by Jacob and his parents, but his friends, Leonard and Malee (Zoe Weizenbaum), are changed by the experience as well. With no ability to taste his food, Leonard loses interest in eating, and after an embarrassing first day in P.E., he begins exercising and thinking about nutrition. Sadly, his self-improvement efforts are not encouraged by his family of rotund recreational eaters. As he loses weight, Leonard becomes an outsider in his own home. He knows his family is killing themselves with every lard-laden bite they take, and he's willing to take drastic and dangerous measures to save them.

After Rudy's funeral, Malee meets a friendly ex-firefighter in the waiting room of her mother's psychiatry office. She's immediately smitten, and her infatuation only increases when she spies her true love doing construction work. While time and space prevent most little girls from acting upon their crushes on older men, Malee has many opportunities to get up close and personal with the object of her desire. She eavesdrops on his therapy sessions, brings him picnic lunches, and even starts sneaking into his apartment (yikes!). Terrified that he will hurt himself, Malee removes a gun from his dresser—a well-intended gesture with dire ramifications. For his part, Malee's "soulmate" is an absolute gentleman who does his best to befriend the little girl in an appropriate way. Though she thinks she's ready for an adult love affair, Malee is just looking to fill the void created by her parent's divorce.

As for Jacob, life seems to spiral out of control without Rudy. He misses his twin terribly, and feels incredible guilt over his death. He's convinced that his parents would have preferred to lose him, and their plan to adopt another child is nothing short of insulting. Jacob channels his anger and grief into secret visits to the juvenile detention center where he spews threats, profanity, and insults at the bullies. Though this process brings Jacob close to forgiveness, his mother wishes the boys who killed Rudy were dead. Ultimately, Jacob feels that he must exact justice in order to redeem himself.

This surprisingly intense film examines those crucial moments when children make adult decisions—moments when it seems so obvious that you know what you're doing, only to find out that you're not quite as mature as you think. Scarily, the adults are often more clueless than the kids. 12 and Holding will take you back to those bittersweet preteen years, and leave you chewing your nails as you wait to learn the fate of these memorable characters. Extra features include commentary by director Michael Cuesta and a pivotal deleted scene.