Bullying is an ever present threat to school children all over the world. Sometimes you might get the notion that the whole purpose of school is to getting children used to bullying. Taking revenge is different ballgame though and that angle is what this movie tries to tackle.
Sam is bullied a school by Josh, because he fiddles with his prized possession, a camera. Sam, his brother and some friends conspire to revenge him by inviting Josh along on a small boat trip up the creek and throw him in the water. As the trip unfolds, they all start to get second thoughts about the revenge and everyone agree not to carry it out, except their friend Marty. He has arranged most of it and was looking forward to the satisfaction. During a truth or dare, they get into a quarrel and Josh ends up in the stream anyway, hits his head on a rock and drowns. Now the five of them are stuck with the problem of what to do.
There is too much focus on unnecessary foul language and playing tough guy by the older boys. A good part of the boat trip is spend on nothing really. You do get a sense of unease about Josh, who at first seemed like a nice boy, but then slowly shows more and more of his darker side by behaving careless and lying. You are led to believe that they might go ahead with their plan after all. After Josh dies, they are unable to think rationally an bury the body in the woods. After they come home the slight interest that the movie was able to raise is completely gone. The whole thing seem to fizzle away into nothing, discarding any possibility of exploring the after effects for the teens and preteens.
A very disappointing last part, in a movie that is not that gripping in the other parts in the first place. The Sam character is almost not in play, while he is the one originally being bullied. The older boys all behave in irresponsible and even sadistic ways that is an extension of their family's behavior against them, but it is not fleshed out in any interesting or deep fashion. The whole scenario of a conspiratorial revenge including so many youngsters seems a bit unrealistic and made this way to get them out of the reach of help or intrusion. The whole third part at home after the trip is disastrous and kills the movie in my opinion.
Rating: 4/10