Summer of 42

This nostalgic coming-into-manhood fantasy features a gorgeous Oscar(r)-winning score by Michel Legrand ("Yentl," "The Thomas Crown Affair").

Director Robert Mulligan (To Kill a Mockingbird) evokes the period with double-dip ice cream cones, paddleball, saddle shoes, packages of Fels Naptha and the mist of memory in which the hero's thoughts are enwrapped. Herman Raucher's screenplay is a discerning and appreciative translation of one boy's trip along a trajectory of psychological and sexual change.