VDT VIEW

By Adann-Kennn Alexxandar
VDT View

“Home” (Period Drama: 1 hour, 23 minutes); Starring: Marcia Gay Harden (Inga), Marian Seldes (Peggy), Michael Gaston (Hermann) and Eulala Scheel (Indigo); Director: Mary Haverstick; Rated: PG-13 (Profanity and thematic elements)
Movie Review: Inga (Harden) is recovering from a mastectomy. Her life changes very much as she is fighting cancer. She becomes an alcoholic, and her husband, Hermann (Gaston), becomes distant. Inga feels their marriage has lost its intimacy. Even more, their beautiful daughter, Indigo (Scheel), becomes the adult, trying to keep mother safe as much as an 8-year-old child can. “You think you’re my mother,” shouts Inga (Marcia Gay Harden) to Indigo after a few glasses of alcohol. Of course, Inga loves her daughter, yet the mother and wife are facing death and trying to find and maintain love within a distraught family. As the family lives through this difficult time, Inga revisits a grand house from her childhood, reliving memories of her own mother’s decaying health.
The unique character here is Peggy, nicely played by Seldes. She moves throughout this film like a grand sage, serving as a connection to the past. Her grandmotherly appeal is inviting and warm. Her scenes give a welcome break from Inga’s dysfunctional family.
“Home,” which Haverstick (”Shades of Black,” 1994) directed, wrote, co-produced, is set in 1969. It is a journal-type narrative, incorporating poetry written by Haverstick’s mother, Mary Stuart Haverstick. This drama is full of emotion and is moving. However, it bounces around from one argument to memory flashbacks like a rabbit on fire, making this screenplay schizophrenic. The cast is talented and does its best; just one-hour, 23 minutes, including end credits, does not allow the characters enough time to gaze at the changing clouds of solitude passing passionately across an embracing blue sky.
Grade: C (Sometimes you can and cannot go home again.)