It is mid-June, in the small French town of Thiers, almost time for school to get out for summer vacation. Boys and girls, who go to separate schools, are counting the days to freedom, looking forward to summer activities. Meanwhile, they still must be in school, go about their regular routines, and experience life along the way through friends, family and situations they find themselves in, making choices, good and bad, based on the way their minds reason and think.

The stories of the children and adults who interact with them are presented to the audience in a flowing series of short stories and sequences that sometimes intertwine, but always move the film forward.

The film opens with a young girl, Martine (Pascale Bruchon), around 5th grade, writing a post card to her cousin, Raoul Briquet in Thiers, and mailing it, being already on her vacation. (Francois Truffaut had a cameo appearance as her father, waiting in the car).

Over the beginning credits, one sees a large group of boys all running up and down the city streets of Thiers, toward their elementary school. We then meet young, energetic Mr. Jean-Francois Richet (Jean-Francois Stevenin) teaching a roomful of young boys, some of whom we get to know better as the story continues. In the middle of his geography lesson, he notices that Raoul Briquet isn't paying attention, and is reading a post card. He calls him up to the front of the class, and proceeds to write the address on the post card on the board, as an impromptu lesson on how to address a letter or card. As the post card is a picture of a famous statue from the town that the girl was visiting, he also talks about that, and encourages his class to contribute any knowledge that they may know of the place. Later on in the scene, we find out that Mr. Richet is married to Lydia (Virginie Thevenet), who is expecting a baby soon.

While classes are going on, the film's audience meets Julien Leclou (Philippe Goldmann), a boy with holes in his clothes, who is just standing with his worn book satchel in the middle of the play yard. The serious, business-like janitor takes control, questions him and walks him into the school, after the boy finally shows him a note from the welfare people.

We also get to visit the classroom of Miss Chantal Petite (Chantal Mercier), who has the older boys. They are studying Moliere's The Miser. She asks various students to recite their homework, which was to memorize the first 15 lines. We meet Patrick (Georges Desmouceaux), a boy who forgot the assignment, but claims he was sick and must of missed it. Even though she sees through his excuse, she gives him a book, and gives him 5 minutes to learn what he can, before she asks him again. After asking several of her students to recite, she goes back to Patrick who successfully recites several lines. She says, "See what you can learn in just 5 minutes?"

She then calls on one of her older boys, Bruno Rouillard (Bruno Staab). She has higher expectations from him, wanting him to put feeling into his reading, and not just recite it. They are interrupted by Mr. Richet, with the new student, Julien. After Julien sits in the back of the class, Miss Petite and Mr. Richet go to talk to the headmaster (Marcel Berbert) about Julien, to find out more about him. While she is gone, Bruno performs for the class, a dramatic rendition of the 15 line homework assignment, much to the delight of the boys, and the wry surprise of Miss Petite who hears the whole performance as she walks across the patio with Mr. Richet, on the way to the headmaster's office.

Outside of school, we start to learn about the lives of these teachers, their students and their families. We find out that Patrick lives with his handicapped father, and longs for a mother figure. He is also just discovering the opposite sex, and later in the story finds himself in a situation that he isn't ready for, thanks to his older friend, Bruno, the 14 year old.

Mr. and the very pregnant Mrs. Richet are busy painting their apartment, and live in the same building as Mr. Richet's student, Richard Golfier and his parents, and a single mother and her pre-school son, Gregory, a real handful that knows no fear. They all have some adventures together.

One of my favorite sequence of scenes is when Gregory's mother discovers that her wallet is missing, and makes the mistake of leaving Gregory alone in their high-rise apartment, with the kitten and an open, screenless window. Luckily, children are resilient.

We meet Sylvie (Sylvie Gritzel), around 7 years old, the daughter of the police chief. Sylvie thinks up a unique way to rectify her situation, and stages a witty protest at the same time, when her parents leave her home on Sunday morning, instead of taking her out to brunch with them, because she insists on bringing her dirty, despicable puppy purse, that she had tried to clean up with water from the fish bowl. This is another one of my favorite sequence of scenes, as she uses her father's bull horn to make her point. "J'ai faim."

Across from Sylvie we meet the rascally Deluca brothers, Mathieu (Claudio Deluca) and Franck (Franck Deluca), who help Sylvie by finding a unique way to send some food across to her. Besides helping their neighbor, they also use their abilities to dream up ways to get francs for toys they want, which lands them in some hot water later in the story. Their hair cutting skills are lacking, and their generosity isn't adult approved.

In between the stories of the children and adults, the audience is slowly given hints to the sorry, abusive home life of Julien Leclou (Phillippe Goldmann), who is always in survival mode, trying to take care of himself, hiding the abuse and neglect he is suffering, and trying to fit in, by doing his best to go to school, attempting his homework, and partaking in community activities such as going to the movies, by sneaking in with the help of another.

When Julien is finally rescued from his awful situation, because of the actions of the janitor, who cares for him more than Julien's own mother, it is a relief to the audience. Mr. Richet gives an impassioned speech to the boys, concerning the plight of children like Julien. "Adults have all the rights, are masters of themselves. Injustice against children is the worst kind of crime. What makes it worse, is that Julien thinks that he is responsible."

Mr. Richet points out that children who have some challenges in their lives develop a stamina to face life, and that they all need to develop stamina; For life is hard, but its wonderful. He ends his talk by saying that some day they will grow up and have their own children. Mr Richet hopes that they will love their children, who will love them in return. "If you don't love your children they will find other things and people to love, as life is like that. One cannot help but to love and be loved."

The last 20 minutes end the film on a high, positive note, and involve a first kiss for Patrick, at his summer camp, with Martine, the girl first seen at the very beginning of the film.

SMALL CHANGE is one of Francois Truffaut's true masterpieces. His ability to work with children, many new to film making, is quite remarkable. He uses their spontaneity along with the script to make quite a natural film, life-like and believable, entertaining, engrossing and poignant, as well as humorous, which all adds up to an entertaining film with an underlying message.

The screenplay is well written as the whole story flows effortlessly between segments, as they intertwine and help define the close community of people, adults and children who live in Thiers, and how they live, think, and solve life's problems.

The cast does an excellent job telling Truffaut's story. Some of the adult characters are professional actors and actresses, while the children are in their first, and sometimes last film.

Jean-Francois Stevenin gives a strong portrayal of the caring teacher Mr. Richet, who is soon to be a father.

Nicole Felix is convincing as the single mom of little Gregory, looking for a husband in the want ads. She has her hands full keeping one step ahead of her son, who has a near disastrous adventure with a kitty, an open window and a big fall!

Chantal Mercier does an excellent job portraying the young, single teacher, Miss Chantal Petit, who is learning a lot in her first year teaching in an all boys school. She holds her class to high standards, taking into consideration their varying abilities, and learns the value of putting two and two together the hard way when Julien's horrible secret is brought to light.

Tania Torrens is perfect for the role of the lovely Nadine Riffle, mother of Laurent, who reaches out to Patrick. Patrick is good friends with her son, Laurent, and helps him with his school work. Patrick develops a mini crush on her, wishing that she was his mother.

The multi-talented actress, writer, composer Virginie Thevenet is convincing as Mr Richet's gentle, patient, loving wife who befriends little Gregory's mom and doesn't mind answering the million questions that Richard Golfier asks about the baby.

This film is rated PG and should be enjoyable for the whole family. Children enjoy watching children tell their stories through acting in films. The film is in French, with English subtitles, so children that can read will be able to follow the stories told in this film.

If you enjoyed SMALL CHANGE you may like "Metroland," "A Little Romance," "Forest Gump," "Ca commence aujourd'hui," "Lean On Me," "It's A Wonderful Life," "The 400 Blows," and "Billy Elliot."