Touching Home - Heartwarming Family Movie DVD | Emotional Drama Film for Movie Nights, Family Gatherings & Gift Giving

In 1996-97, independent films reached what we now see was its one-decade plateau. John Sayles had made a number of successful, low-budget movies. Quentin Tarantino was hotter than a pistol. Harvey Weinstein was said to be the most powerful executive in Hollywood.Three films directed or screenwritten by young, or at least relatively new filmmakers, were all the rage. There was Sling Blade by Billy Bob Thornton; Swingers from Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau; and Good Will Hunting, written by and starring the duo of Matt Damon with Ben Affleck.These films inspired a cult of screenwriting classes, seminars on independent movie making, and "meet 'n' greets" between screenwriting hopefuls and development executives. The Sundance Film Festival, Cannes, and other festivals promised moviegoers first-time glimpses at The Next Big Thing. The Independent Film Channel became popular cable fare.A decade or so later, the concept that with some credit cards, a dream and the sweat of one's creative brow, you too can be the next John Cassevetes, has produced almost as many disappointments as a weekend splurge in Las Vegas, often with far more damaging economic results. Now, just when it looked like great moviemaking was a lost art; that only huge studios had the wherewithal to make and market a hit film; and that spirituality, family values and character arc were lost altogether in Tinseltown, mocked as shrill voices of conservatism, comes Noah and Logan Miller and their absolutely wonderful Touching Home.Describing this film and its backstory is to give witness to a literal miracle, for the story of the twins, the story the movie tells, and how it all happened, are a collection of parables, allegories and metaphors of their lives . . . and of life!In assessing how good Touching Home ([...]) is, let's start with an understandable scale. It is better than Breaking Away; perhaps significantly better. Whether it is better than Swingers (which was a totally different film) or Good Will Hunting (which had similar themes) is debatable. Maybe a notch below. The point is made, however. It is in the conversation. It is akin to saying a baseball hitter may not be the league Most Valuable Player, but after hitting .310 with 25 homers and 90 runs batted in his first season, he is Rookie of the Year and in the top 10 of the MVP balloting.The film sure as heck deserves a distribution deal. It may not get enough publicity, and perhaps may not even be released this year, so star actor Ed Harris probably will not be nominated for an Academy Award. But if there are five people up for Best Supporting Actor Oscars in 2009 who were better in their movies than Harris is in this, then I will switch my registration from the Reagan wing of the Republican Party to the Communists.Forget your shoot-'em-ups and your action/adventure blockbusters. Go to any film school and study what it is that makes a great screenplay great; character arc, caring for the characters . . . it is all in Touching Home. They will be using this film at the USC and UCLA film schools some day, but try as they might, future students will not be able to duplicate it. Why? Because what a couple of kids in their early 30s, with limited education and no formal filmmaking experience pulled off is . . . a miracle of the heart. Yes, they have talent. Yes, they worked hard. Yes, they deserve their newfound success, but there is a difference between luck and miracles. The twins as well as anybody can attest to this. The film itself achieves this profound truth.The Millers have a big future as actors. They have the looks and the screen presence to be major sex symbols and models. They have natural thespian chops with some comic relief thrown in. Their biggest challenge will be the ones Tarantino, Orson Welles and Norman Mailer faced: duplicating themselves. Touching Home is too personal to be duplicated, but for now let us stay in the moment.The story is simple. Two twin brothers are baseball prospects. One is in the Colorado Rockies' minor league Arizona Spring Training camp. The other pitches for nearby Pima Community College. On the same day, the pro catcher is released and the college pitcher flunks out of school. They return home to west Marin County, California with their tails between their legs. Their old friends ride them, trying to bring them down to their level. They have a dysfunctional family; a kind-but-mentally-challenged uncle; an alcoholic grandmother; and a more-alcoholic father (Harris) who works hard in a quarry every day but still lives in his truck.The film tells the tale of how the two brothers alternately love and are disappointed by their dad, who lets them down time and time again. The Biblical model of Cain and Abel threatens to be their destiny. Every obstacle is placed between the brothers and their goals. One is determined to stay in shape, hoping to go after more pro try-outs. The other gives up, preferring to drink beer and shelve his dreams. His pretty new schoolteacher girlfriend never dissuades him from trying again, but she is adorable enough to make most guys just want to settle down. The let's-quit bro is peeved when the gung-ho bro lifts weights, runs and trains. They fight about it.One friend (Evan Jones from Jarhead) is a cut-up who at first is happy to see the twins, always stars of little league and local baseball fame, get brought down to Earth, but in a wise twist of storytelling he comes around, supporting them. Another friend encourages them to try again, not unlike Sean Astin's pal in Rudy.All their hopes are frustrated by the old man (Harris), who cannot overcome his addictions to alcohol and gambling, which is why despite the same work ethic he passed on to his sons, he cannot hold onto his dough long enough to get a place of his own. A friendly police officer and coach (Robert Forster) tries to help, but just when all seems good, the alcohol ruins everything.Harris did this for scale, but the performance he renders is as good - and probably better - than the one he would have performed for a $5 million payday. He is the essence of a professional actor!The film intersperses light moments with dark ones, but seems headed towards the abyss until the San Francisco Giants announce try-outs for local prospects. Here is where the writing and the direction are so masterful. The mood changes to an up-beat one at just the right time. The let's-quit bro suddenly finds motivation, and three weeks of intense training follow. The musical choices are beautiful and perfectly timed. It is not unlike Field of Dreams when James Earl Jones tells Kevin Costner, "It means we're goin' to Minnesota," which is followed by brilliant open-road sunshine accompanied by China Grove, courtesy of The Doobie Brothers. The scenes of the brothers pushing themselves on the weights and on the baseball diamond are paeans to Rocky.To go much further threatens to ruin the plot, but additional twists and turns await. No mountain is too high. What can be said is that more fabulous acting infuses each scene, and that every one is a life lesson. This is not a "baseball movie." It does not end with the pitcher bro striking out a guy to win the World Series with his catcher bro jumping into his arms. Baseball is a metaphor. It is about the journey, and what a journey it is.The old man finally contributes to his sons and comes around. The family unit is kept together, but Shakespearean tragedy is always a wild pitch away. The genius of Harris's character, and of the direction he got from the filmmaker/brothers, was the ability to play this flawed man without judgment. All he wants is love from sons he seems to have done all to push away, yet he gets it anyway. In it is found a Christian grace that is subtle yet profound. The father has not earned love through works, yet eventually receives it like water irrigating a barren valley. At the same time, the man who disappointed, even stole from his sons, has given them something worth more than gold. Redemption and forgiveness are the messages. If you watch this without at least tearing up a bit, you need to see a physician. Or a pastor.It is real life, not everybody walking into the sunset to live happily ever after, but the beauty of Touching Home is that the hopes and dreams of true lives is the sense that we all can live happily ever after. This film somehow, some way - but only if you open your heart and are willing to see it - gives us the meaning of life, and it ain't multi-million-dollar bonus contracts or World Series adulation.Then there is the cinematography. When one attends film festivals or watches indie films, there is an expectation of something grainy; pretty good for a first effort or worthy of an A in film class. But line producer Jeremy Zajonc's father, the famed (within flying circles) "Bobby Z.," who flew three tours in Vietnam as a helicopter ace before taking his talents, like Dale Dye, to liberal Hollywood, provided some great aerial footage. West Marin County is simply another character in the story; its awesome Redwood forest beauty intertwined with the tale, and herein we find some more rural wisdom.Marin County is one of the most Left-wing places in America. It is a bastion of elitism with some of the lowest church attendance in the nation, but west Marin, separated from the salons of Sausalito and Mill Valley by towering Mt. Tamalpais, is a rural, truck-and-gun-rack culture more resembling the Bible Belt South. Resembling, perhaps, but by no means mirroring. West Marin is unique. West Marin is the Miller brothers, and they paint this portrait exquisitely.Touching Home is a Christian story, but its spiritual themes are handled in a subtle manner that allows anybody to enjoy it without feeling preached to; not an easy feat. The brothers are hard to tell apart, but it works and besides, it will just be a good excuse for audiences to see the film over and over until they get it straight. Furthermore, it could prove a unique, winning formula in the long acting career that awaits them.Touching Home played to an audience that sold out a month in advance of its debut on Saturday, April 26 at the San Francisco Film Festival, held at the Kabuki Theatre. Three days later, at 12:30 in the afternoon on a Tuesday, a part of The City with limited parking (the garage was full well before the movie started) and meters that dole out 10 whole minutes for a quarter and do not allow for more than an hour's worth of valuable time, the theatre was again jam-packed. So was the question-and-answer session that lasted some 45 minutes after its showing. It was the hit of the festival in every way. The reaction of the audience during and after the film was indicative of genuine feeling that they had seen something special. In an industry that pumps out film after film after film, mostly (and increasingly) dreck, the people saw stardom born and knew it.Being local lads, many knew the story of the Miller twins, from a baseball and a filmmaking perspective. Their lives are metaphors for the making of the movie, just as the movie is a metaphor for their lives. They were raised in the San Geronimo valley area of west Marin, a sprawling, hilly area of farms, ranches, bed-and-breakfasts, surf communities and rugged, mountainous coast line that is not unfamiliar to people. It encompasses the cliffs to the west of the Golden Gate Bridge and winds for some 40 or 50 miles up the coast. A number of movies have been filmed there, most notably Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, near the Marin-Sonoma border.They played baseball at Sir Francis Drake High School in San Anselmo, but Drake is better known as a basketball powerhouse. In the early 1980s under coach Pete Hawyard, the Pirates won two straight state championships while breaking the California record for consecutive wins, previously held by San Diego Helix when the great Bill Walton prepped there. Former UCLA basketball coach Steve Lavin (1996-2003) and his Bruins coaching staff were products of the Drake hoops dynasty.Logan and Noah had diamond skills, one as a catcher and the other as a pitcher/outfielder. After playing for Marin County coaching legend Al Endriss in junior college, they took baseball to the next level; the Toronto Blue Jays' team in the class-A Florida State League and Southern Arkansas State University, respectively. They are both legitimate baseball players. The on-field scenes in Touching Home are as authentic as any in movies. Kevin Costner, who was a walk-on at Cal State Fullerton, displayed passable ability in Bull Durham, but the Millers both look signable, especially the Charlie Lau-style one-hand-finish batting stroke made famous by George Brett and later the Chicago White Sox of the early 1990s. Line drives are not computer graphics. Fastballs, curves and change-ups are not "movie magic," although "throwing strikes" was described as "the hardest part about making the movie." They could give pointers to Barry Zito.