So after all the backstabbing, conniving, deal-making, and tears and races to the finish we’ve arrived at the big result. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s groundbreaking Project Greenlight, which began years ago in a quest to discover new talent, has finally wrapped up with the arrival of “Stolen Summer,” which already had its bar set long before its release due to the intensity of the contest from whence it came. To be perfectly honest, we can’t help but expect a film equally intense: something truly special and exciting that sets this apart from the hundreds of other contestants and proved noteworthy enough to get the seal of approval from two Oscar winning screenwriters and actors. So what do we have in the end? A cute, cuddly Norman Rockwell painting that teaches and preaches about the importance of tolerance.

“Stolen Summer,” directed with an autobiographical edge by Pete Jones, is the story of precocious third grader Pete O’Malley (Adi Stein), one of the middle children in a working class Irish Catholic family of ten. His father is the rough, stalwart Joe O’Malley (Aidan Quinn), a firefighter who sticks to super-traditional values, so much that he considers college for his eldest son (Eddie Kay Thomas, “American Pie”) a waste of money, and also refuses to let anyone else have the last word. It is the contrast of young Pete’s wide-eyed view of the world and his father’s close-mindedness that set the stage for the ensuing rising action. Pete meets the kindly Rabbi Jacobsen (Kevin Pollak), whose very introduction opens up the movies underlying theme of tolerance with its Jewish values versus Christian values overtones. In the process of trying to understand religion, his family and the nature of heaven or hell or whatever the “great beyond is,” he befriends the Rabbi’s son, young Danny Jacobsen (Mike Weinberg), who has leukemia. From that point on, “Stolen Summer” (even the title is standard fare) is awash in paint-by-numbers action and the time-honored clichés of the coming-of-age movie, leading to an unsurprising, if still affecting conclusion.

So what made native golden boys Afflek and Damon pick this one out of a lot that, from the distance of the HBO special that chronicled Project Greenlight, seemed filled to the brim with exciting possibilities? For starters, its got that same down-home feel that is the stuff of autobiography: storytelling from the heart that was one of the hallmarks of “Good Will Hunting.” Perhaps Afflek and Damon felt that in today’s age of computer trickery, pyrotechnical bombast and two-and-a-half to three-hour running times, filmgoers were in need of a tight, clean-cut, 90 minute exploration that managed to tug the heartstrings and tickle the mind without bombarding either.

The movie, quite simply, is pure formula done well: we laugh a little, cry a little, are told which characters to like and dislike, showed which conflicts to pay attention to and know in the end how each and every one of the characters will turn out. It manages to rise above its generic parameters in two levels: first, the nature of its arrival to the big screen, whose contest is now an established institution regardless of the film’s success, and second, superior performances by Kevin Pollak, Aidan Quinn (who’s been MIA for the longest time), the always-reliable Bonnie Hunt and young Adi Stein, who brings the innocence, impetuousness and earnestness of youth to the role. Director Pete Jones is also commendable for applying everything he has seen in movies of this type before, and adding his own personal spin.

But never once does the film get past its own generic limitations; it sets its sights rather low, and hits the bullseye. It’s cute. It works. It’s unexceptional. B-