Cheesy in some ways, but very good overall.

Sounds like this depiction was pretty accurate to the true story behind it. I like how they sorta alluded to some sort of higher power, or Karma or whatever, without actually saying "Praise Jesus!"... :-P... Spiritualism is alright, but you get tired of having the oer-the-top preachiness explicitly portrayed in movies like this. They didn't go that route, and I give them props for that.
The lead actor, Luke David Blumm was pretty believable as a lost and desperate, but educated teen who used whatever skills he learned to stretch his survival as far as he could. Not bad for a 13 year old.
I might be a bit of an outlier, but I'd give this movie 8 out of 10.