Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Based on the short film of the same name helmed by the same director. I recently saw many Canadian films, so here comes another one. This is a small film. Not by running time, but cast and production wise. A summer vacation tale, focused on the three boys. You know, summer is always a game changer for kids. This is the season where they learn about the other side of the world. Most of the coming-of-age events take place. Surely this is another one, but I liked it very much.The title could imply many things, but one of the meanings was the same as 'coming-of-age'. I meant, suddenly if you learn something, you realise its significance, then you won't be same as before. You try to act accordingly in the given situation. Like any teen films, you can expect fun stuffs from this. The adventure was good. Not thrilling ones, but like what normal kids do. What I most hated was harming insects. It might be nothing for the majority of people on the planet, but that was a disturbing image for me. I had almost turned the film down.There's no intro. The story just began and moved forward. Because it is easy to get along. Even the narration did not stick to any one's particular perspective. Though most of the time it was Adam's. The teenager came with his parents to spend the summer at their cottage located Canadian side of the Erie Lake. With two friends, he set to venture places around for fun. He's a decent kind, but not the other two. So because of them, he learns their way of making the day. But there's a limit for everything. Once that limit crossed, the story takes a turn and head straight for the finale.❝Should take the opportunity while it's open, before it closes.❞The film was predictable. Not like scene by scene, dialogues, but what might happen next. That's probably not by everyone. From the opening few minutes itself, I knew there's something big is coming up. But I had to wait for it till the last. I haven't seen the original short, though this story was so perfect for that kind. They extended it and I liked those developments which added more details, familiarising the characters and the situation. The writing was the tricky one. Not smartly done, though convincing one. There's always a clue left behind for what might come later, like a straightforward storytelling. So you basically watch it looking forward to that event.Still, the film was interesting enough to hook up with it. The film characters were awesome, very distinctive, which made the film possible. Though some dialogues should have been better. Most of them were improvised, which sometimes feels cinematically unfamiliar. Nevertheless, nice job done by all the cast, particularly the three boys. For other than the cinephiles, the ending could be an unexpected, because of the lack of exposure on what film would turn which way.A good film for teenagers to watch, but not for anyone younger than that. Because thematically, it was slightly strong. Referred sex, but no nudes. This is being a Canadian film could be the reason not recognised widely, but it deserves better than that. Not just this one, but many fine similar films met with the same fate before. I'm ninety-nine per cent sure you have never heard this title before. But if you had watched and liked such as 'The Kings of Summer', 'Paranoid Park', then why not try this one. It won't be your film of the year, but there's less chance for you to dislike it.7/10

Having read the other reviews here, there is only one which I completely agree with. The signs are there if you look for them, but most people seem to have missed the fact that the Sleeping Giant is not only a teenager's anger, but perhaps moreso his sexuality beginning to burgeon with disastrous results. SPOILERS Where several other reviewers talk about a triangle of two teens wanting the same girl, in fact it is much more about one teen wanting his buddy but afraid to admit to it - and finding a way to discourage the girl from continuing her flirtation with the object of his affection (his buddy). There is one scene where his buddy says (I'm paraphrasing) "If you like someone you should tell them." and there is a second when he almost admits his love for the other boy... but we also understand that, when, in a later scene with his fathers "mistress", he says "There's something wrong with me" - it is really the admission that he has gay feelings. That other reviewers missed this doesn't surprise me; it is very nuanced in the telling, but any gay person will see the signs that others miss.As for the rest of the film, it is extremely well constructed, with so many moments of foreboding building to a climax that the tension is almost unbearable sometimes. Beautifully shot, beautifully acted, a gem.

Sleeping Giant is a hidden gem of a film, but its gift can only be experienced when you abandon commercial expectations and allow the film the requisite amount of time needed to transport you from a pre- conditioned cinematic abyss to an authentic time and place. Emotions penetrate through the barriers of the screen, capturing the viewer with both the acting and directing.I enjoyed it. Well done.Rating: 8/10

There are more coming-of-age films than masterpieces in the Louvre, but there are only a handful of them that have stood the test of time. First-time Canadian director Andrew Cividino's Sleeping Giant, an update of the short that won the youth jury prize at Locarno last year, may just join this select group. Winner of the award for Best Canadian First Feature Film at the Toronto Film Festival, it is the story of three very different teenage boys during a summer vacation in Northern Ontario. It is not a comedy about lovable misfits such as "Kings of Summer," but an expression of growing up in all its reality and in all its cruelty.The film is set in the rugged area around Lake Superior close to lush forests and breathtaking mountain ranges, beautifully photographed by cinematographer James Klopko. The title refers to the huge rock formation near Thunder Bay known as Todd's Cliff which was named after the individual who survived the 100-foot drop. The title, however, can also apply to the anger building in 15-year-old Adam (Jackson Martin), a sensitive, slightly effeminate boy with a shaky self image. Adam, who does not seem to have an offensive bone in his body, is the odd man out in his collection of friends which includes cousins Nate (Nick Servino) and Riley (Reece Moffett). The boys are staying with their Grandmother (Rita Serino) but would not look out of place in a juvenile detention facility.They are tough, sarcastic, and funny, but troubled people who often seem numb to human emotion. Though the three live in different social and economic worlds, Adam seems content just to be included and his eyes seem to fix on Riley, an abrasive but still saner version of his noxious cousin Nate. During a wrestling contest on the beach, a bloodied Adam hits his head on a rock but all Riley can say is "Stop being a pussy." Adam has come up to Thunder Bay with his well off parents, his mom and pseudo-hipster dad William (David Disher, "My Father and the Man in Black") who knows all the right words to ingratiate himself with the teenagers.When William invites Riley for dinner, Nate has a ton of nasty and sarcastic things to say about parents, suggesting the reason why the boys are staying with their Grandmother. Riley is not adverse to stirring the pot either and, when he happens to glimpse Adam's dad making out with Marianne, (Erika Brodzky) a local fish market owner, he spills the beans to Adam who takes it very hard. The normally placid boy begins spying on the woman, and his personality takes on a harder edge as he joins the others in getting high and robbing a liquor store. Tension, jealousy, and confusion arise between the three boys, however, as Adam and Riley both set their sights on a local girl named Taylor (Katelyn McKerracher), though for Adam she is "just a friend." Though much of time is spent with innocent pleasures such as playing board games, walking in the woods, jumping into the water from rocks, or wrestling, there is a sense of foreboding hanging over the film that shifts the mood quickly. This happens when the fun of playing a board game triggers a bloody brawl between Nate and Riley and when a summer afternoon outing is darkened by the smashing of the carcass of a dead bird. It is only when the boys succumb to peer pressure and attempt to prove their manhood that things get so far out of hand that there is no back to turn to.Unlike films with similar themes in which adults look back at their youth with nostalgia, in Sleeping Giant there is no looking back, only the immediacy and visceral impact of a powerfully real experience. Backed by the indie-rock sounds of Toronto-based Bruce Peninsula and an original score by Chris Thornborrow, brilliant performances by the three young men fully capture the lived-in quality of people coming-of-age right before our eyes. It is a film that feels as if you are watching it in real time and when the realization that our lives can change in an instant hits you in the gut, you wish it was just a movie rather than a familiar experience.