This charming New York-set romance feels like an adaptation of the diary Woody Allen might have kept as a pre-pubescent. Josh Hutcherson (Zathura) plays Gabe, an angst-ridden 11-year-old who, quite literally, falls head over heels for Rosemary (Charlie Ray) at karate class. Over the course of one languorous New York summer, he struggles to negotiate the protocols of dating and win her heart. Writer Jennifer Flackett allows access to Gabe's innermost thoughts with an amusingly precocious voiceover where he muses that love is "a terrible, ugly business". Hutcherson delivers the lines with total conviction in a film that never patronises its young subject or his emotions. Director Mark Levin lets the pace dip in the middle and occasionally aims for a laugh when he should be angling for pathos (Gabe's big crying scene, for example), but this tale of puppy love still stands head and shoulders above most romantic comedies aimed at grownups.

Ten-year-old Gabe Burton is just an average kid growing up in Manhattan until Rosemary Telesco walks into his karate class. But before Gabe can tell Rosemary how he feels, she reveals that she won't be going to public school any more. Gabe has a lot more to learn about life, love, and girls.