Finding Home

Four male writers couldn't hang any of this film together in spite of some great old stars (Louise Fletcher, Genevieve Bujold) who try their best with a leaden script and subversive fundamentalist messages.

Clichés? Let me count the ways. I believe I've never been privy to so many in this one loooooong contrived movie that must have gone straight to DVD. It wouldn't survive a Friday night at the local Odeon.

Traumatic event in childhood conveniently forgotten by the star - who by the way has to be one of the most irritating actresses ever, she ran the gamut of emotions from A to B to quote a famous critic. She squeaks her lines and does a lot of batting with the eyes. Awful to watch her.

The granddaughter is forbidden to see the grandmother as an eleven year old child but then makes no effort to see her as an adult even though she professes undying love for her? She behaves like a receptionist in her "high career" in New York, excited over her birthday and her new boyfriend, her "boss". The audience is not privy to what everyone does for a living. It is strictly so she can give up her career (in that "fundy" way) to settle down and get over that nonsense.

The caretaker-sculptor turns out to have invested in Microsoft when he was twelve (doesn't everybody?) and is now wealthy but living as a boatman/bum.

The secret was not getting worked up into a froth over. Fisticuffs a plenty and the oddest, strained dialogue. Squeaky clean too. She accuses her boss of travelling all the way to Maine so he could "jump her". Man that spun me sideways before I burst out laughing. "Jump"? Wha'? I've never heard a woman use that term. Guys, yes.

And it goes on and on and on and on and on. Each cliché heavier than the one before it until it collapses, whimpering, under the pro-life ending.

I gave it 2 out of 10. The scenery and the inn are truly lovely and so is the haunting music.

Finding Home was shot on an island off the coast of Maine and the photography is superb. The music is also terrific. A young woman inherits her Grandmother's coastal inn and must decide whether to keep it or sell it. Along the way she unlocks a mystery from the past. While the plot and acting are interesting enough, the pacing is slow and the dialog trite. Some scenes become repetitious and at least 20 minutes should be cut. But Finding Home captures the elusive beauty of a remote New England island summer vacation that more famous films never did (A Summer Place, Cider House Rules, The Whales of August.) I'm guessing this will go straight to video... where it will become popular with people who love that romantic "downeast" coastal mystique. (I want that pristine modified lobster boat used to ferry people to the island! )

The photography is beautiful. The actors are attractive and their characters have moments of interest. I enjoyed the first half hour or so of a slowly unfolding story of family conflict, nostalgia for an interrupted youth. Frequent flashbacks enlivened the development of the backstory.

However, the slow unfolding became a plodding march from incident to incident more akin to the animation of a bulleted list than the representation of a maturing person.

The acting and cinematography talent are wasted on an overly long, contrived, unbelievable and trite plot. The writing is wooden to the point of embarrassment. My wife summed it up: This is the movie equivalent of a Good Housekeeping novel, in the worst sense.

Lis Brenner stars as a young woman who inherits her grandmother's rustic inn in Maine and a mystery to along with it. She encounters the longtime housekeeper played by Gen Bujold and the housekeeper's nephew, an artist, whom Brenner knew as a child. Louis Fletcher plays the woman's dead grandmother. The men cast in this women's TV flick are generic, and hard to tell apart. You know the nephew, a brooding Heathcliff character, will end up with the girl but it is a long road getting there. The secret as such is hardly a secret to any half-awake viewer. The scenery is pretty, and Brenner is believable as a career girl being drawn into her small-town life. Other than that, it's not worth watching.

My wife rented this movie recently, and when I saw the IMDb rating of 4/10 I almost didn't watch it. I'm so glad that I changed my mind! We both found it very touching and enjoyable... While it had a slower pace than movies I usually watch, it pulled me in and I soon found myself completely immersed in the story. Finding Home touches on issues of the problems that can arise from long-held family secrets, and the difficulties and eventual joys that can arise through truth and forgiveness. It also highlights some of the important things that can get lost in the shuffle of everyday life.

The acting, cinematography and music were also top notch (I plan on ordering the soundtrack this week from Amazon.)

If you have a chance to see this uplifting movie, don't pass it up... Highly recommended. 9/10.