When I Find the Ocean

What a wonderful movie!! It seem that family movies are few and far between these days. It is hard to find a quality film that the whole family can enjoy. It seems like there is little originality left in the movies today, everyone wants to remake one movie or another. Tonya has given us something new. She has succeeded in making a film that touches the heart of old and young alike! Although set in 1965, the topics are still (unfortunately) relevant today. The casting was great...I really enjoyed empathizing with Lily and her family and hating Richard Tyson and the poachers. The score is great...I still get goose-bumps. Being from the area where most of the film was made, I recognized most of the the names of the actors and sites in the film. Thank you Tonya for putting North Alabama on the map. Congratulations on a job VERY WELL DONE!!

I have to give this 3 stars only because it's a first time effort by an unknown director. The story had some of the same bones as "Bastard Out of Carolina" and the upcoming "Secret Life of Bees" with some "Fried Green Tomatoes" atmospheric shots. The premise of the story, set in 1965 civil rights era Alabama, is an interesting one, about a young girl with a loving family (grandparents and a well-meaning mother) dealing with loss, abuse, and heartache.

The main character, Lily, was played by the director's daughter of the same name. While likable, it was fairly obvious she had no acting skills or training of any sort, and it was not the best idea to put her in the starring role of a movie, especially with polished actors like Dianne Ladd and Graham Greene among others.

This film also reduced some characters to cartoon-like sensibilities, as well as absurd subplots (like wild panthers roaming the Alabama woods???). There's even a scene where young Lily smears shoe polish all over her face to disguise herself as a black child. I had to quit watching after that.

All in all, this movie was pretty awful. It only has some small shining moments in the performances of its veteran actors. This movie could have been much better with a well written script, a more experienced child lead actor and without the beyond ridiculous sub-plots.

I can only assume the positive ratings are by friends of the director. Especially the 9 star rating by someone who hasn't even seen the movie!The movie might actually have been semi-decent without the unprofessional, weak and pathetic performance of Lily, the director's daughter. She was embarrassingly poor. I understand this is a first attempt by the director so maybe we should cut her some slack. Okay, but since most of her other credits are as a talent caster and production assistant you'd think she would have done a better job of casting the lead. I will say that this is about the best I've seen Lee Majors act. He was darn good. Amy Redford's performance was disappointing. Story was thin and predictable as well. After Lily had taken her "whuppings" you'd think she'd be in some pain. Yet, both Granpa and Mom put their arms around her several times making me wince, but didn't seem to bother Lily in the least. On the positive side -- the score and the scenery were quite good. The director may have a future as a filmmaker, but she needs to be more judicious in her casting and directing. Good luck.

I've literally never seen a worse movie. The acting was beyond terrible. My husband and I had a wonderful time watching it because we were just constantly getting a kick out of how terrible it was.

I have seen better movies made in peoples basements....the scene with the plastic flowers and the foam headstones was just awful....and the voice of Lily's dad...why that would scare the devil himself. And the jump cuts....man o man o man ....film school at worst....The acting by Amy Redford was overdone as was most of the others...Graham Greene looked and acted like he was mad as hell through the whole thing...Lee Majors gave an OK performance considering the lines he had to read.. Many of my friends who have also seen the movie thought the Selma March scene looked like a remake of Return of the Living Dead. I must say that some of the scenes of the Tennessee River were breathtaking...but got pretty old after the third or fourth shot of them. All and all let's hope this movie stays in the can.