Stealing Home (1988)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Powerful

Don't Believe the Hype

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Watch this movie. Please forget the critics and their ratings. They are just plain wrong on this gem of a picture. A "Rotten Tomatometer" rating of 30% by the critics but a 78% by the viewing public??? That should tell you all you need to know.Imagine yourself being transported back to an innocent time in your life where everything was peaceful, uncomplicated and joyous. The best and most interesting summer of your life. That's what this movie portrays through flashbacks, flash-forwards and honest feelings portrayed by a very talented cast of actors and filmmakers."Stealing Home" is one of those movies that should have a bigger following than it does. It's been almost forgotten as a movie, which is a shame. This may be more "chick flick" than male-oriented and although has baseball as it's core, plot and relationships are at the center of the story, not sports. As a male, this is still one of my favorite movies. The story is touching, beautiful, emotional, and nostalgic while still showing frailty of life. Losing a loved one has a universal impact on those left behind.Mark Harmon and Jodie Foster head a fabulous cast of actors in this movie. Shown mostly in flashback in Billy's final innocent summer spent with his parents and his babysitter-of-all-babysitters, Katie (Foster) before heading off to play minor league baseball in the Phillies' organization, life couldn't be more idyllic on the lovely beaches of the Jersey shoreline.The movie opens where washed-up adult Billy (Harmon in current day 1987), while lost in a mid-life crisis and out of baseball altogether, is given a call to come back home to rural New Jersey and look after the ashes of his childhood babysitter, Katie, who committed suicide at the family's beach house. The story progresses in flashback of Billy recalling all the fantastic, gorgeous, funny and tragic adventures of Billy's and Katie's relationships and moments leading to where Billy is now. Flipping from current day back to the late-'60s is flawless and never throws the viewer as Billy searches for what is the "right" thing to do with Katie's beloved ashes. You meet Katie and how mature, yet oh so mischievous, she was and how teenage Billy (William McNamara) could come to fall in love with someone who treated him as the most incredible little brother she'd never had. You meet Billy's perfectly loving parents (Blair Brown and the underrated John Shea) and how much joy and unwavering support they meant to Billy while growing up. Add Jonathan Silverman as Billy's ever-horny best friend, Alan Appleby, as the comic relief and ever-underachieving wingman and you have the making of a special movie. As Billy realizes how closely his life is tied not just to baseball, but to the lives of his tight-knit family and his best friends, it reveals a complex web of love, sacrifice, and truth Billy comes to understand was meant to make him a better human being, not just a ballplayer.This movie is stunning. From the photography, the acting, the screenplay, and the excellent soundtrack. It is both funny and tragic and everything in between. It feels like a faint summer breeze blowing on you as you sit quietly on a beach chair at the ocean at your family's summer cottage. The kind of wisp of air that leaves a mark on you that you can't touch but you know it will always be with you wherever you go. It's beautiful.If you love the actors, you'll love this movie. If you've ever lost a loved one and forgot how special those times were with that loved one before it all became too complicated, this is the movie for you. It will make you think. It will make you feel. And you will remember how much love there is in this world. All you need is a push sometimes to realize how much. It is a movie about seasons of life and how precious they are and always will be. Give this movie a chance. You may find it special also.

Burnt-out baseball player Mark Harmon, upon hearing of the suicide of a childhood friend, hearkens back to his younger days, eventually returning home to put peace to the past. As Harmon's boyhood muse, Jodie Foster is a bit like Auntie Mame at 20, raffish and exciting--but what happens to her character is a writer's pretense and it just doesn't wash (it fails to jibe with the blossomed young woman we've been watching). This light drama, a labor of love for writer-directors Steven Kampmann and William Porter, is awfully slight, relying heavily on comedic asides and nostalgia to round it off (even erring on that score, as the nostalgia seems distinctly falsified). However, Foster has a handful of scenes that touch on something deeper than woozy sentiment and reminiscences; she finds the heart of this piece and manages to give the picture some depth. ** from ****

I have done many reviews, some of them I really want to update, and one of the movies that I haven't updated is this one. Believe me that is a strange thing, because this movie is properly my favorite movie of all time. So for a couple of minutes listen and think about it, I want to update this review so enjoy...Storyline - 10/10 - The story goes something like this, Billy Wyatt is a washed up baseball player that never really amounted to anything. His life is now centered on living with a cocktail waitress as he himself explains it. One day his mother call him to tell him that his old babysitter who was there for him in many years and as well as being one he loved has killed herself and at her favorite place. She also left a note telling that she wanted Billy to have the ashes since he was the only one who knew what to do with them. So at night he returns home to his birth place and lives with his mom for some days. At first he doesn't know what to do with the ashes and hands them to his mother who tells him he is the only who could know and they were left for him. The story then follows Billy recalling the past with a lot of flashbacks through the movie. Those flashbacks are then in the end the final answer to where the ashes should be placed. While he does all this he slowly becomes whole again and finds the passion for baseball...Actors - 10/10 - Both Jodie Foster and Mark Harmon play their roles perfectly, you really feel with them, and you feel like the story is really told to you. They both show the feelings they should and they really do almost feel real to the viewer the feelings are conveyed in a way not many can do these days. Apart from Jodie Foster and Mark Harmon the actor Jonathan Silverman should not be understated, his role as Alan Appleby is so spot on and even the old version played by Harold Ramis can't be understated. Of course Blair Brown and John Shea really do also steal away the story, they act so real like and it works all the way.Soundtrack - 10/10 - The soundtrack is comprised of many known songs through the years and of course they are all from that decade, but there are also some done by David Foster. David Foster's music cannot be understated, the theme of Stealing Home moves you in a way not many movies can, the other themes like Katie's Theme and Home Movies are also heartbreaking and heart restoring if you can say that. But nothing can really be done more right then the song for the Stealing Home theme "And When She Danced" it is properly one of the best romantic songs ever written for a movie and it is done right. Both David Foster and Marilyn Martin sings it and moves you the way it you should be moved.Special Effects - N/A - Well I guess there are some camera poses and such and different lighting but this movie isn't an action movie, there isn't any special effects so to speak of, and of course there really doesn't need to so there isn't much to say about this part of the review the lighting and the camera angles and poses are well directed so nothing bad there.Overall - 10/10 - Overall this movie is my favorite and one I recommend fondly, it really should be watched once. Now a day it can be a little rare but should you be lucky enough to see it on a store shelf and you haven't seen it before buy it. I promise you a good time, don't look at rating, and even though this is a review don't create your own idea of the movie through this. But at least try and watch it, if you don't like it that's fine, a review is only a point from another viewer every person's opinion will vary, but I think at least you should try...

Loved the movie...esp. Jodie! She was divine. Happy, free-spirited and beautiful. What most girls would love to be. She helped Will navigate life. From his grade school years, to high school and then into his thirties. After his father died she tenderly loved him. When she died, she gave Will the task of disposing of her ashes. Her death brought him home, where he was loved. In finding the perfect location for her ashes, he was able to resolve the loss of his father and get off his sidetracked life.I would watch again and recommend it to anyone. HATED the music! That saxophone made me wince!!!! Very distracting. Kenny G anyone? Yuck!