Koutras admirably resists easy wish fulfillment by making the brothers' journey more important than their destination, but the scenario he presents inexplicably turns out to be fantasy.

You come away from "Xenia" feeling a bit more alive and ready to throw caution to the wind.

Though the story's finally too predictable and a little too thin to captivate for the film's entire two-hours-plus running time, the characters, their chemistry and their plight are compelling

What Xenia captures (successfully, repeatedly) is that uncomfortable late teen age, where you're grasping desperately for your childhood and its safe comforts, and also itching to become new, independent, and powerful.