Stealing Home (1988)

Wow! Such a good movie.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

I loved it. Having spent my life in sport (athletics, skiing, curling and golf), I thought this film - and The Natural - really caught the spirit of competitive sports. I was also enchanted by the poignancy of the two love stories and the flashbacks really worked for me. In many ways it is a tragic coming-of-age drama with a baseball player who so very nearly made it suddenly receiving news that his childhood sweetheart (Jodie Foster) has committed suicide and left the disposal of her ashes up to him. On his way home, he recalls his past with Foster: early days as his babysitter, the time they made love, and the summer conversations they had on the New Jersey shore. He looks up his best friend played by Jonathan Silverman who has never really forgiven him for sleeping with his prom date (and this leads him to renew his relationship with that girl, now a divorced mother). He finally realizes what he must do with Foster's remains and the film ends with him casting her ashes into the wind at the end of the pier.

Katie (Jodie Foster) fairly twangs with whiplash energy as the capricious golden-haired tornado passing though the centre of so many of the character's lives. But without the anchors of her friends she drifts into the rocks and sinks leaving a ragged gaping hole in the hearts of the people who loved her.David Foster's soundtrack is evocative and nostalgic with a good pace. There are no real surprises in this film but the flashbacks are neatly put together and the cinematography is commendable - the cutaway shot of Katie in the hammock looking wistfully out to sea is an image that lingers as it embodies the time it portrays. A time when almost anything seemed possible.The film is a moving portrayal of how big a space is left behind by people who deliberately leave the game ahead of their time.

Athletes often face a rough mid-life period as their skills diminish and their careers wind down, since their sport so defines who and what they are. This topic has great potential for drama and poignancy, yet few good films have been made on the subject. This movie has a beautifully sad central love story, with aging minor league ballplayer Billy Wyatt (Mark Harmon) remembering the (then) older woman who inspired him so many years before (Jodie Foster), and trying to come to terms with the route his career and life have taken. So, he returns to his hometown, connects with his high school best friend (Harold Ramis) and starts looking into his past for answers, while much of the film plays out in flashback, recounting his bittersweet teen years, when everything was ahead of him but his own goals and motivations were elusive. What makes the film watchable is the complexity of the central relationship, as the mature Billy realizes that the most important woman in his life arrived when he was too young to appreciate her. The movie is quite beautiful to look at with its clean-scrubbed view of small town life and high school sports, and the characters are engaging to follow. This is not a great movie by any means. Like Billy Wyatt himself, this one just misses hitting the major leagues, but it IS enjoyable in a low key way, and the lack of interesting movies on this potentially interesting subject makes it a bit special.

I first watched this in the theater when I was 15, and I was bored by it. Then one night it was on cable and I decided to rewatch it. My heart is aching, because twenty years has made such a difference in how I see this movie. This movie is about loss. Lost dreams, lost loves, lost potential, lost chances of making amends. Jodie Foster was heartbreaking. A girl from a well to do family who could just never get her life together. A woman/child who in some ways was mature beyond her years but also immature for her years. Foster nails this performance, and in fact I think this is her most touching performance. In the flashback at the end where she is on the pier aching for a dream escape from her life, you can feel her want and quiet desperation. "See that's all I really want to do, Billy Boy. I want to leap off this pier and fly high in the air and hang out with the wind and drift with the clouds. And at night with the moon full and the sea wild, I'd meet my lover high on a cliff and we'd swoop down into the ocean and swim all the way down and touch the bottom... up through the dark water and break the surface! And then we'd fly to Jamaica for pina coladas. God I wish I could do that." William McNamara in one of his best roles. He played this with innocence and sensitivity, and was appealing. The downsides: Mark Harmon does his best, but I felt that at times his performance brought the film down. When he raced to fling her ashes over the pier, I wanted to be more touched but he just didn't do it for me. The scenes with Appleby were OK when they were younger, but Harold Ramis was wasted in this film. I am from East Falls, Philadelphia, so I appreciated the trip down memory lane with the Philly and south Jersey scenes. I'd recommend watching this. Today I purchased the DVD and will probably rewatch it soon.