A tender, beautifully observed coming of age film that turns a summer of illness, fear, and first connection into a quietly powerful meditation on time, family, and what it truly means to live.
by Nav Qateel
Written and directed by Kenneth R. Frank, with How I Spent My Summer Vacation being his third dramatic effort focused on family. This coming-of-age drama follows thirteen-year-old Grace (wonderfully performed by Raquel Sciacca), at the end of her school year, who finds herself and kid brother Richie accompanying her parents to Long Island to stay at her grandfather’s house after he becomes sick.
Grace’s mother Clara (Christina Elise Perry) takes on the task of looking after her father, discovering that he’s been ignoring important letters concerning the likes of Medicaid.
Grace is already obsessed with prolonging her life, with voiceovers quoting studies from various sources explaining how things like running can extend life, so she takes to running every morning. This pattern of behavior takes up much of Grace’s time, and watching her grandfather’s illness progress isn’t helping matters.
The teenager also has a fear of going into water, which is a huge problem as she and dad Tom (Chris Mollica) have a long-planned trip to the Galapagos Islands, where Grace wants to swim with the long-lived tortoises. Again, the theme of living as long as possible is her motivation for visiting the famous Islands and seeing these incredibly old reptiles.
It is while out running that Grace initially sees Mateo, a young man running in the opposite direction who would later turn up at grandpa Richie’s door asking for a donation to add to a time capsule that the local library plan on burying for one-hundred-and-fifty years. It turns out that Richie (Jerry Colpitts) was once a pro baseball player and a donation from the local legend would be meaningful.
Mateo (Ryan Umbarila) and Grace become friends with the pair attempting to see a firework display, however after Mateo unwittingly takes Grace to the beach, her fear of water gets in the way. I enjoyed watching the friendship of the pair develop, after initially worrying that it would be a hackneyed “boy meets girl” affair, but it was a more realistic holiday relationship that was written well by Frank.
In fact the writing in How I Spent My Summer Vacation was fantastic, with many examples I could point to. For instance, how Frank introduces each character and who they are within the family was a joy to behold. I have watched many movies where getting to know the players is handled clumsily, but here it was impressive and you always knew exactly who everyone was and their motivations.
Uncle Richie (Paolo Kossi) was an interesting character that, like almost every character here, had real depth to him, and with a backstory that everyone could relate. I felt like writer-director Kenneth R. Frank personally knew this character and was writing from experience.
Every actor in this drama appeared to have enough time to get their teeth into their respective roles and show what they were made of with much success. Raquel Sciacca’s Grace took the spotlight, but there were no weak links to be found here, with everyone doing equally and impressively well.
How I Spent My Summer Vacation is a beautiful film with great characters and acting, excellent writing, solid direction and pleasing camerawork. It is also a film that will stand the test of time as it covers universal subjects that every single one of us considers in our lives. A must see.
Nav’s Score: 9/10
