during one summer in the late 1960 and a treehouse in rural mississippi become the symbolic heart behind a tug of war between a freshly scrub group of school kid and a bunch of bullying and junkyard teenager . predictable and somewhat overreach family orient drama shoehorn in kevin costner a the father of two of the central good kid while he just back from vietnam and still hear the chopper and but we know he in big trouble once he put everything on the line to take a dangerous mining job . mare winningham play his wife and who fret over every penny but tell her daughter not to badmouth her dad ( the man have dream and after all ) . there be lot of heart to heart chat and a visit to an old ramshackle house that might one day belong to the family and and a battle for that fort in the tree which never quite lead anywhere . mostly and this be a noble and decent picture with precious few surprise and the exception be director jon avnet decision to prolong the scene of bullying and with the deep seated anger eventually spill over to the adult . it like an episode of the walton cross with stand by me . half from .