My Last Summer
Sort of has a first person narrative to it: A teenage boy
has just received the devastating news that he has gotten
cancer and only has seven months to live. At this point, his
family begins to fall apart and is very upset and will not
act the same around him. He decides that he wants to take a
cross country road trip and take in all that he can while he
has those few months left. His friends, a teenage boy and a
teenage girl decide to go with him to spend the last of
their times together.
They go all over the place and have memorable times while
meeting up with new and different people and learning more
about life in these few months than they ever have before.
This occurs all the while his parents object to his decision
and while he is away become depressed, thinking they will
never have any time to spend with their son. After three
months of summer, the teenager returns home to find that his
siblings have moved to a new house and his father and mother
are now in a state hospital with severe depression. He only
has 4 months left…
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal... teen boy
Amber Tamblyn... Teen girl (friend)
Justin Long... Best friend
Meryl Streep... Mother
Jeff Bridges... Father
Siblings: talented unknown actors
-- Script Pitch III Host Commentary --
by Lee Tistaert and Stephen Lucas
Lee's Analysis:
One of the main reasons this story appeals to me and
doesn’t come off as just downright cheesy is that I knew
someone in high school who died of cancer. That and I like
Jake Gyllenhaal, who is on your proposed cast list, and the
idea of a road trip could work. However, comparisons to
About Schmidt are probably going to come up, so ideas to
keep the direction different in some way will probably be
needed to be respected by critics and viewers.
But there is also the danger of being really sappy,
and the title might have to be changed in that regard if it
would ever get a theatrical release. If you dive into the
teenagers’ relationships before and through the road trip in
a realistic and intimate manner, then it might work. The
idea is a wildcard scenario whether it could be pulled off
properly, but the fact that I have the personal connection
is what put it ahead of the rest, and in that regard not
everyone may feel the same.
Stephen's Analysis:
There’s something that keeps rolling through my mind
when I read this pitch: melodrama. This is a film that may
endlessly dwell on the
looming death and despair that the boy’s cancer entails
rather than living it up. The road trip suggestion seems to
want to do the latter, but the matter of the family getting
depressed and jealous is rather distasteful.
If told in first-person, "My Last Summer" seems as
though it would be, from what is pitched right here,
something shown on the Hallmark channel. At this stage, I
can’t see this film fairing well with audiences (should we
sympathize with someone who abandons his family when they
need him most?) nor critics. Also, this pitch lacks
originality. Spice it up or change some elements of the
story and there may be promise.
Rating: C
