Emmett (2019)

Emmett: Directed by Bridget Stokes. With Zach Gilford, Rita Wilson, Tracie Thoms, Arden Myrin. A twelve year-old child prodigy teams up with a quirky retiree to solve a crime and save his family from splitting up.

“Emmett Charles (Miles Brown) is a confident, imaginative 12 year old prodigy attending high school. There is a thieve in the school and police detective Gordon is called in. Suspicion falls upon Emmettu0026#39;s brother Luke.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eEmmett is an annoying brat. He can claim some of it as comedic flourishes but there is too much of it. Everybody keeps complaining that heu0026#39;s too perfect when Mac is closer to the truth. Heu0026#39;s a know-it-all but has non of the experience. Quite frankly, I feel sympathetic to Mac and I shouldnu0026#39;t. The movie forces me. Then there is the smorgasbord of differing styles and tones. Itu0026#39;s a mangled mess. It wants to be a kiddie movie. It wants to deal with the serious race card. It wants to be a wacky screwball comedy. Itu0026#39;s all over the place. The production looks weak. That part is surprising since there are some good actors involved. The mystery is not a tough mystery. I thought the case got solved with the pawn shop surveillance footage. When that happens, the tension of Luke all goes away. This is a mess.”