Stealing Home is a 1988 movie, starring Mark Harmon, Jodie Foster, Jonathan Silverman, and Harold Ramis. The film is directed by Steven Kampmann and William Porter.
Plot summary
Now in his 30s, and doing poorly financially and socially, Billy Wyatt (played by Mark Harmon), who was a former, very talented high school baseball player and college baseball prospect, receives a telephone call from his mother revealing that his former child-sitter, and later in his teens, his first love, Katie Chandler (played by Jodie Foster), has committed suicide. This immediately elicits wonderful and painful memories of the times he spent with her, as well as of times in his own childhood, especially with his father Sam Wyatt (played by John Shea) with whom he had a very affectionate relationship, and with best friend Alan Appleby (played by Jonathan Silverman) with whom he had a great friendship full of adventure, challenge, conversation, struggles, learning, and more.
The memories become the story of the movie for considerable periods of time, going back to his pre-teen time with Katie as his child-sitter (Katie was in her late teens at the time), and the pre-teen time with his father; then to his teens, both before and after his father died in a car accident when on a work trip, and with Katie, as two people who share a brief time of love together before she moves out of the country to be with a man she loves and pursue a course of life she wants. Katie was immensely helpful to Billy after his father died, which was a part of their developing affection for one another, prior to Katie leaving the country, which was the last time he saw her.
Billy in the present, now in his thirties, struggles to know what to do with the ashes of Katie, which is what Katie's parents have asked Billy to take care of. He searches his memories for answers, and finds Alan Appleby after many years of having lost touch, and they talk about everything, and embark on more adventures now as adults (just as they did as teens), and the answer finally comes to Billy as he remembers something Katie spoke of long ago from her own early childhood: The horse on the boardwalk in Atlantic City, being forced to run full speed down the boardwalk and off the edge into the water. He remembers that she wished the horse could have flown away over the water.
Cast
Locations
The film plot is set in the Philadelphia area and the New Jersey shore. The filming occurred in many locations:
- The house that Billy grows up in is located in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, where exterior scenes were shot;
- The interiors of Billy's childhood home were filmed in a house located in Springfield, Pennsylvania;
- The scenes in Bob's Diner were filmed at Ridge Avenue in Roxborough;
- Alan Appleby's sporting goods store was located on Germantown Avenue in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania;
- Carlton Academy is actually Chestnut Hill Academy;
- The opening scene and closing scene were shot at Fiscalini Field in San Bernardino, CA. The team he was shown playing for in the movie was the name of the actual team that played there at the time, The San Bernardino Spirit.
Reception
In her review for the New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote, "The era is simply established as a dreamily idyllic past, thanks to sand dunes at twilight, waves that crash in the distance, shiny red convertibles without seat belts and a musical score that may make you want to weep, for all the wrong reasons".[1] Rita Kempley, in her review for the Washington Post described the film as a "pale comedy-drama by mediocrities Steven Kampmann and Will Aldis. Admittedly a pastiche of their memories, the movie bespeaks the dust of '60s yearbooks and greeting card sentiment. Of course, that stuff can be touching (Summer of '42) or quirky (Gregory's Girl), but here only allergy sufferers will leave with soggy Kleenex".[2] In his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert wrote, "I detested Stealing Home so much, from beginning to end, that I left the screening wondering if any movie could possibly be that bad".[3]
When asked recently about the film, Mark Harmon said, "That was about a bunch of actors loving a script, going there and burning it on both ends for five weeks just to get it done. That was a fun one to make. I hear a lot about that role. People really found that movie on video".[4]
References
- ^ Maslin, Janet (August 26, 1988). "Growing Up, and Into Baseball". New York Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?_r=1&res=940DE5D61E30F935A1575BC0A96E948260&oref=slogin. Retrieved 2008-04-16.
- ^ Kempley, Rita (August 26, 1988). "Stealing Home". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/stealinghomepg13kempley_a0c9f3.htm. Retrieved 2008-04-16.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (August 26, 1988). "Stealing Home". Chicago Sun-Times. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19880826/REVIEWS/808260303/1023. Retrieved 2008-04-16.
- ^ Rice, Lynette (February 22, 2006). "Making His Mark". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1162124,00.html. Retrieved 2008-04-16.
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