Review of Inventing the Abbotts (1997) by David A — 21 Apr 2010

(from The Watermark, 05/01/97).

In this sweet coming-of-age film, Phoenix and Crudup are two working-class brothers being raised by their mother in a small Illinois town in the late 1950's. They spend most of their teen years lusting after the three daughters of the richest family in town, the Abbotts. Crudup is particularly obsessed with wooing and bedding the girls because he believes that the Abbotts' fortune should really belong to his family, and that they even had a hand in his father's untimely death. Phoenix, the level-headed brother, is just content to be friends with the youngest of the daughters (Tyler) and must hope that their friendship doesn't suffer as a result of Crudup's misplaced resentment of the family. The story and subject are slightly above made-for-TV material in which the boys must lay some skeletons in the family closet to rest before moving into well-adjusted adulthood. What brings it to a higher level are the performances and chemistry between the gifted young cast. Queer Quotient: The only element that seems out of place is when Phoenix ends up going to college as a scenic design major. The film nowhere prepares us to believe he has any artistic inclinations. And maybe I'm prejudiced, but it's just such a gay profession, isn't it?