A Little Inside

This is the rare golden nugget found while panning through 150 channel steams of cable TV. No mega stars, no explosions, no big budget. It wasn't at the multiplex and it wasn't a hot topic around the water cooler.

A 30 something auto mechanic in Columbus, Ohio is struggling to raise his 9 year old daughter several years after losing his wife in a car accident. A local legend for his baseball prowess he is struggling to tone down his macho ways to be both father and mother to his daughter.

His daughter is everything to him and his sacrifice of a promising minor league career with the Yankee Triple A Columbus Clippers to be there for her shows his priorities are in order.

A somewhat older next door spinster aching for love and family offers to provide the daughter with the lacking feminine touches. The contest between the father and the neighbor pit nice people against each other trying to help a 9 year old girl.

The neighbor picks up the slack taking care of the daughter, giving dad another shot at baseball and slowly awakening to the interest of a pretty divorced mom who idolized him in high school.

The slow evolution of father, daughter, neighbor supported by a small but significant cast and the script's warmth without wallowing make this movie work on several levels.

I actually registered for IMDb just to sound my warning. I don't fancy myself a movie buff or a critic and normally walk away from most movies with something I appreciate. A negative review is not something I would expect to give, but I lost 90+ minutes last night watching this.

The first half of the movie dragged downward and the film never recovered after that. In short, all of the story lines and characters were under-developed. Consequently, the "resolution" didn't strike much of a chord. You could see what the intent of the film was, but that was about it. I felt like half of every storyline was left on the editing room floor.

I definitely would not recommend this film.

A little inside was one of the best films I have screened. Having viewed in the presence of the entire cast, I may be biased. However, It is exciting to see strong screenplays and equally powerful performances by the cast outside the big 5 production companies. The big 5 have disenfranchised the public for too long, make way for independents!

I liked this movie a lot . But thought Nanci's character was a little too controlling .I know people like that ex step mom was like that and to me it wasn't because she didn't raise any children that was the problem with Abbie and her .There are a lot of people who don't have children but awesome working with children .I teach karate assistant coach soccer and work with kids at my church going to college to be a teacher . I just recently found that person in my life with young princess's Lizzie Isabell 10 and Emma 7 who call me dad and tomboys part of what I started with that job the lord gave me .But started that job the lord gave me working with kids and joking around way before I met them last year when I was 45 I was still in high school when that started .So it wasn't because she never raised a kid like my step mom she needed to loosen up a little and stop taking control of everything .

I was quite disappointed in this movie. Luckily, Hallie Kate Eisenberg was cast in it because without her, the movie would have been over before it started. How long had Ed Mills (Abby's father) and Nancy, the next door neighbor, known each other? How was it that Nancy had no idea how Ed Mills' wife died? Also, Nancy's constant interfering in the raising of Abby should have made Ed Mills turn to someone else to watch Abby. Enter, Abby's friends Mother, Sarah Parker. Why wasn't she asked to watch Abby? There were so many inconsistencies in this movie but the one constant was Abby. For someone so young, to be able to carry a movie like she did, that alone made it bearable.