The title doesn’t do this movie any favors, suggesting as it does another Louisa May Alcott edition or a ensemble piece of height-challenged actors.  Instead, this realistic drama spotlights how a budding friendship between two adolescent boys is threatened when their parents begin to maneuver around a touchy business lease in Brooklyn.  The movie is much better than its title.

Ira Sachs’ film ostensibly tells both sides of this family-based tale: when his father passes, actor Brian (Greg Kinnear), his psychotherapist wife Kathy (Jennifer Ehle) and their son Jake (Theo Taplitz) inherit a Brooklyn house with a dress shop on the ground floor.  The shop is run by Leonor (Paulina Garcia) and her son Tony (Michael Barbieri).  The rent, which has not moved in eleven years, must rise, but Leonor cannot afford the increase, and she protests, insisting that Brian’s father wished her to remain there permanently.

I say ostensibly because most of the scenes involve Brian, Kathy and Jake as they move to Brooklyn and reassess their lives.  Brian doesn’t really want to pressure Leonor but his sister Audrey (Talia Balsam) insists on receiving some form of inheritance.  The majority of the drama centers on this side of the equation; relatively little explores why Leonor feels so strongly connected to the property.  And Leonor twice makes statements that not only rile Brian but make any compromise almost impossible.  Meanwhile, the two boys are bonding and becoming real friends.

Their friendship is at the heart of the drama, and if this part of the story would have been stronger this film would have been even better.  The boys’ relationship is a bit stilted and artificial, however, especially at first, which is somewhat distracting.  What really works is the film’s refusal to come to a happy ending; once things break down there is no phony reconciliation.  Ultimately this is a life lesson for its title characters and an intriguing drama for the audience.  ☆ ☆ 1/2.  30 September 2016.