I'll Remember April [DVD]

Amazon.com Although the horrors of WWII are far removed from the Pacific Coast community where adolescent Duke Cooper (Trevor Morgan) and his three best chums play soldier, experiment with swearing, and earnestly patrol the beach for Japanese submarines, the realities of the war are about to come crashing down around them. Not when a Japanese soldier, stranded and wounded when his sub quickly dived, washes ashore; his capture by the foursome merely allows for more playtime and thoughts of becoming heroes. It's coming because Duke's older brother is on some island awaiting combat and the black sedans with military tags have already begun rolling through town to deliver their grim announcements. And Duke's Japanese American pal Willie Tanaka (Yuki Tokuhiro), all three feet and 55 pounds of him, has suddenly become a threat to national security, so he, his mother, and grandfather are soon to be shipped away to an internment camp. For a children's film, these are strong, potent themes to discuss; unfortunately any kid will be put off by I'll Remember April's obviousness and condescending tone in a heartbeat. The script by Mark Sanderson assumes its audience needs every point spelled out twice: Duke and his friends (among them Haley Joel Osment, top-billed on the video box despite a smallish role) have the strange habit of repeating ad infinitum their conclusions about the unfairness of it all. Composer Paul Zaza apparently finds that insufficient, since his score hammers home each preprogrammed emotion without mercy. Director Bob Clark has made wonderful movies (A Christmas Story, Murder by Decree) and awful ones (Porky's, Rhinestone); this one falls somewhere in between, sincere and blessed with a clutch of good child actors, but crassly manipulative and too intent on educating its audience to realize it is talking down to them instead. --Bruce Reid
ASIN: B000050IM0
VSKU: DBV.B000050IM0.G
Condition: Good
Binding: DVD