The Plumm family is far from idyllic. Mick Plumm (William Baldwin) is a washed-up, never-was boxer who blames his family for his failures and seeks to drink his troubles into oblivion. While Roxie Plumm (Lise Guerrero) does her best to hold the family together and keep the bills paid, the responsibility of raising 5-year-old Rocky (Owen Pearce) largely falls to Elliot. While at a festival celebrating local TV personality Happy Herb (Henry Winkler) and his puppet Froggy Doo, Rocky's idol, the boys are witness to the disappearance of the beloved puppet. This sends Rocky into hysterics and the town into mourning. With the help of new-to-town Haley Dubois (Morgan Flynn), who is Elliot's neighbor and daughter to the deputy sheriff, an investigation commences. As the sleuths begin to piece together the puzzle, their relationship also begins to blossom. Meanwhile, the FBI has sent a pair of agents to the town to head up the search for Froggy Doo. As the case develops and the reward for the puppet's return grows, the competition between the young detectives and the FBI agents escalates. Still, can Elliot overcome a distraught younger brother, a drunken father, peer pressure and his budding romantic interest in time to solve the case?
I'll be the first to admit that, having never heard of A Plumm Summer before being handed the movie for review, my expectations were not very high. I took it home, put it in the player, called my two girls in to keep me company, and sat back, prepared to half-doze through another straight-to-video "family" movie. Much to my surprise, I found myself engrossed in the story. Yes, all of the thematic elements have been covered in other movies (many, many other movies), but good writing, an obvious love for good film-making by the director and great performances by the cast really helped push this film up the ranks. It is not perfect, not by any means, but the few elements of flat scripting and/or poor acting do very little to detract from the overall feel of the movie. Despite my less than enthusiastic approach at the beginning of the movie, I found that, when it came time to stop the movie for the evening so that my girls could get ready for bed, I was really looking forward to finishing it with them the following evening.
The DVD itself comes with a nice selection of extras, and even if none are particularly note-worthy individually, some viewers will certainly enjoy one or two of them. The movies is rated PG for mild rude language and thematic elements. To be honest, the language must have been very mild, as I cannot recall anything that had me even a little uncomfortable in front of my girls (ages 8 and 9). As for thematic elements, there is some mild violence and a tense river scene, but the most prominent is focus on a troubled home and the drunken father. All said, there was nothing in this film that would cause me to hesitate allowing younger viewers (probably 5 and up) access to it and I would recommend it to any family that enjoys watching movies together, as it really was, as so many other films advertise, "a fun family film."
