I gave it a nine to help offset the unnecessarily negative reviews. While it's not a perfect film, it's certainly far far better than a 3 or 4. I've watched it a couple of times since its release 10 years ago, and it gets better with a second or even third viewing.
It features a heart-wrenching, stand-out performance from a young Emory Cohen, as a high school graduate trying to leave a small Maine working class farm town and find a better life in Boston with his best friend Dominic (Callan McAuliffe, who plays Alden in TWD) . Aiden Gillen (Game of Thrones) plays his drug-smuggling father, who is a corrupting influence. This is set against a background of the fall potato harvest, and anyone who has lived in a small farm town knows the importance of harvest season.
Emory Cohen's performance as a troubled teen brings to mind the young James Dean in "Rebel without a Cause". Cohen's "Casper" is caught in a black hole of trouble, not entirely of his own making, but which might consume him, and everyone he cares for. Definitely worth a watch.
