Take Me Home: The John Denver Story

Chad Lowe is simply awful. The lip synching he does for the songs is almost funny. He has never been a very effective actor but this performance wouldn't even get noticed in a high school competition. One has to wonder how he got this gig.

The other actors and actresses in the movie do a good job but no one stands out. The worst part about Chad Lowe's performance is that it is so bad that it overshadows the effort of every other performer.

The story of John Denver is a compelling and interesting one. Unfortunately, this movie does almost nothing to capitalize on it. Chad Lowe seems like he is lampooning John Denver on Saturday Night Live. It would be funny if he weren't trying to be serious.

My father was John Denver's photographer, and spent over 20 years travelling around the world with him. When he saw this, he called everyone he knew and was saying, "hey, did you see 'The Hal Thau Story'?" He then must have told me about 20-something anachronisms that occured in this film. I cracked up myself at the total lameness of John Denver's character talking in a voice that didn't even sound like him, and then lip-synching to crappy old recordings. It could have been good, but the director obviously had no idea who John Denver was as a person.

Based on a book, this is a very sweet movie that explores the private lives of "John Denver" Chad Lowe[brother of Rob Lowe] (Now and Again) and his wife "Annie Denver" Kristin Davis (Sex and the City). There were many things about John Denver which were emphasized in this movie. The first was that his father (an military pilot) never gave John any positive enforcement about his career in music. He wanted his son to join the military like dad did. That is how I explain his fascination with flying. It wasn't until Denver took his father for a ride in his airplane that the father finally gave him compliments and they were able to talk about the father's lack of encouragement of Denver's career. The father did not even like the fact that John adopted the stage name Denver, after the city in beautiful Colorado. The second was that John Denver was an extremely talented composer and singer, but he did not get the recognition that he deserved because his music was not mainstream and the only big record label that would sign a contract with him was RCA. The third was that the Denver's were unable to have children and adopted two kids; one was African American. This was all very good and interesting. I believe that the ratings were probably low because people tend to assume that all movies made for television are bad. Which is absolutely not true.There were some songs that we did even realize John Denver composed. Unfortunately he was more famous and much more admired abroad than he was in the U.S., and that frustrated him a lot. Favorite Scenes: Denver proposing and proposing to his wife. He drove hours just to ask her out. Favorite Quote: Denver:"far out."

In a word, shallow.

Or how about, "a really good idea with a lot of potential"? Knowing what I do about John Denver's life I would have much rather seen a PBS documentary on him than this program - after which I wondered how much of what I had seen was real or just artistic license.

The elements were there, I suppose, but they weren't very fully developed. And since I like Denver's music I wanted to watch the show, but if I wasn't a fan I don't think there would have been much in there to keep me watching.

Perhaps a mini-series would have given the needed time to develop some elements a bit more. Or maybe it would have been just as shallow, but longer; I don't know.

Maybe I just ought to read his book instead.

I like John Denver's music and, ultimately, that was the only thing I liked about this film. Chad Lowe, though a fine actor, I thought was miscast. Not once in the entire film could I "suspend disbelief" and buy him as Denver, especially in John's later years when his 2 older children were teens/young adults and John was 50-ish. Lowe looked even younger than his own 32 years; never mind portraying the 50-ish father of 2 teenagers!

I also found the writing/dialogue to be stale and cliched and scenes/events oftentimes rushed, packing zero emotion. It was more like watching actors do re-enactments on those biography shows than a film.