Watch Now
Ithaca (2015)
Watch Now
In a small town in California's San Joaquin Valley, 14-year-old Homer Macauley is determined to be the best and fastest bicycle telegraph messenger anyone has ever seen. His older brother has gone to war, leaving Homer to look after his widowed mother, his older sister and his 4-year-old brother, Ulysses. And so it is that as spring turns to summer, 1942, Homer Macauley delivers messages of love, hope, pain... and death... to the good people of Ithaca. And Homer Macauley will grapple with one message that will change him forever - from a boy into a man. Based on Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Saroyan's 1943 novel, The Human Comedy, ITHACA is the quintessential wartime tale of the Home Front. It is a coming-of-age story about the exuberance of youth, the sweetness of life, the sting of death and the modesty and sheer goodness that lives in each and every one of us.
Watch Trailer
Cast
Similar titles
Reviews
Touches You
Too much of everything
Crappy film
The acting in this movie is really good.
I wanted to enjoy this film. The setting was beautiful, but the contrast between the joyful exuberance of youth and bracing reality of adulthood was stark. I believe this was what the director was working to achieve. It was one of those films in which it feels just too real, including the surreal moments. That being the case, watching was painful, and I don't feel afterward that there were sufficient merits to outweigh that pain.
This film tells the story of a fourteen year old boy, who takes up the job as a messenger to deliver telegraphs back in the dark times of the second world war.The book might have been touching, but this film unfortunately does not work. The story does not seen to go anywhere. It doesn't develop the characters, and viewers don't understand why any of the characters are at the point that they are at. Why does the boy need to take up a job? Why does the older guy drink so much? What about the other messenger? The lack of background information makes me feel distant from the characters. It takes forty minutes of screen time to deliver the second telegraph. That's way too long for a film about a boy delivering telegraphs. The film could have explored more on how the sad telegraphs affected him, so there's wasted opportunity. I watched the film for Tom Hanks, and I don't even recall him having said a word!
Typical, popular movies are a combination of profanity and some degree of nudity, along with some action and special effects. This is not one of those. This is not even rated PG-13. You realize at that point that the story is everything.Since I wasn't alive during World War II, I cannot speak to the conditions, but being a little kid in the 1960s, I suspect that life had only changed a little.As the movie begins, there is a recording of Pres. FDR and it is somewhat difficult for me to hear, as I am Japanese. I have often avoided WWII-related movies.However, this movie is about dealing with life and death, while growing up.The main character is hopeful, but naive. Homer realizes that his work seemed simple but in the deep of things, dealing with real life is not so sweet. $15 per week seems really high pay, maybe three times what I expected.There isn't a lot of chemistry between the actors but it is enough to keep the story going. Claiming Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks sells the film but they have minimal roles. Alex Neustaedter has big shoes to fill and does fine in general.I felt a great deal when Homer delivered the death notices to the families. He certainly felt a great deal.It's somewhat obvious that the film is not at the high end of the scale. There are mistakes. However, how do you get the high end right now without profanity and at least some nudity? If you place yourself into the film's era, it can work because life was slower then.
"I don't know what's ahead, but whatever it is I am humbly ready for it." Homer Macauley (Neustaedter) has just watched his brother go off to fight in WWII and wants to do anything he can to help. He decides the best way for him to help his family is to get a job. He decides to become a bicycle telegraph messenger, and sets out to be the best and fastest one anyone has ever seen. Soon after he begins he is given a message that changes everything, and his job becomes more important than he ever imagined. This is a movie that I am very torn about. On one hand the movie has tremendous heart and leaves you hoping the movie won't end the way you expect it to. The acting is great and this is a very good character study of how the war affected the relatives stateside. On the other hand, you have a prediction on how the movie will end and you are just waiting for it to come to fruition. The fact that you think this way distracts you from the movie and the emotion of every other aspect seems to be lost and glossed over. I didn't think the movie was that bad and it is worth seeing, but about a year ago a movie called Little Boy came out and that was far better than this one. Overall, a good movie that is worth seeing, but you spend the entire time waiting for one thing to happen and it ultimately distracts you from the rest of the movie. I give this a B-.