A HOME OF OUR OWN
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1993 Scott Renshaw
Starring: Kathy Bates, Edward Furlong, Soon-Teck Oh. Screenplay: Patrick Duncan. Director: Tony Bill.
If you want big emotions, you want Steven Spielberg; if it's understated sentimentality you're looking for, you call Tony Bill. From 1980's MY BODYGUARD through the recent UNTAMED HEART, Bill has demonstrated a skill with emotional stories that steer clear of maudlin excess. As one who enjoys feeling without feeling manipulated, I find that a pretty neat trick. A HOME OF OUR OWN is an extremely appealing low-key family drama, driven by Kathy Bates' rock-solid lead performance, which adds to Bill's growing resume of restrained character pieces.
Bates plays Frances Lacey, a hard-working widow trying to raise six children alone in 1962. After losing a job in a potato chip plant, Frances decides to move the family from Los Angeles, much to the dismay of oldest son Shane (Edward Furlong). They set out with no specific destination and virtually no money, winding up in rural Idaho. There she spots an unfinished house owned by Mr. Moon (Soon-Teck Oh) and manages to barter chores for the opportunity to live in and repair it. She takes a job at a local bowling alley, and slowly but surely begins working towards her dream of settling her family into a life with some kind of future in a home of their own.
A HOME OF OUR OWN plays a lot like an impoverished "Wonder Years," with its 1960s setting and wry retrospective narration, but unlike that series the voice-over is rarely intrusive and doesn't draw the focus away from Frances. As played by Kathy Bates, Frances is the heart and soul of the family and the film, a woman so determined to make it on her own terms that she occasionally loses sight of what's best for her children. Bates is near perfect, a presence that commands respect; one is hard-pressed to think of another actor who would be as convincing as a sane mother of six. Her slightly weathered features convey years of struggle, but she maintains an earthy good humor and a relentless optimism borne of necessity.
That Kathy Bates gives a great performance can't be considered much of a surprise. What is a pleasant surprise is A HOME OF OUR OWN's realistic portrayal of family life in hardship. With the exception of Edward Furlong, the Lacey children are played by first-time actors, and they are quite natural. Scenes are filled with petty squabbles, but beneath them all is a kind of solidarity which never seems mock-heroic. There is a level of love and mutual respect in the interaction which frankly threw me. It's not often that a movie does an American family this kind of justice.
Like most of Tony Bill's work, A HOME OF OUR OWN is best when it's quietly observant. There are a few "Big Confrontations," and they seem forced, primarily due to Furlong's histrionics. Young actors tend to get into a lot of trouble when they're asked to yell, or to deliver lines like, "You care more about the house than you do about us," and this is no exception. The film also trips when it spends too much time away from Kathy Bates, such as a tacked-on sequence involving Furlong's first date. I was a bit disappointed in the inspirational finale, which loses some of the integrity points that HOME had accrued. It's the small family moments, particularly the car trip to Idaho and a visit to a church thrift store, which really won me over.
I shouldn't forget the nice performance of Soon-Teck Oh as "Mr. Moon" Munimura, the lonely gardener who finds a new family in the Laceys. I wish the filmmakers had done less with Furlong's character and more with his, the one through whom we can see the family's struggle with somewhat objective eyes. "Wholesome" is a word that usually inspires derision, but I couldn't be more complimentary when I say that A HOME OF OUR OWN is a wholesome, subtly emotional film, well-acted and skillfully directed.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 children: 8.
-- Scott Renshaw Stanford University Office of the General Counsel
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