Ecos de un verano

When Jodie Foster-admirers discuss her long career, this title usually gets left out. It's a simple, sentimental story of an ill young girl and the effects her strength and will has on the people around her. Richard Harris is a bit heavy as her father (and I could have done without his non-singing over the credits: "Deeer-draaah!"), but Foster makes the most of her scenes, particularly with William Windom as a doctor surprised by her maturity and Brad Savage as a local boy who's curious about sex (they hold hands and lie together on the beach in a stunningly delicate moment). Based on the flop Broadway play "Isle of Children", which starred a post-"Miracle Worker" Patty Duke, the movie gets a little hectic in its final stages as the filmmakers try to wrap up the story with a birthday party sequence I didn't much care for. Still worth-seeing for Foster, luminous at eleven years and holding this picture together. **1/2 from ****