GamerTab
That was an excellent one.
Hattie
I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.
Candida
It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.
Matt James
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.
Dave from Ottawa
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.
moonspinner55
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 ****
TxMike
"Stealing Home" takes place over a number of years, perhaps 25 or so, from the 1960s to the 1980s. Billy Wyatt as a young boy of 10 has Katie Chandler (20-something Jodie Foster, playing a 16-year old) as a babysitter. Katie is unconventional, smokes and borrows the car without permission, and Billy is attracted to that. Even with their difference in ages, Billy never gives up.Mark Harmon plays the adult 30-something Billy, and as the movie opens we see him arriving at a baseball stadium, not major leagues, at 5:45AM, he stripes the field, does a few other things, and dresses into his uniform. Most of the movie is then told in flashback.As a teenager Billy (William McNamara) was a promising ballplayer, and was even invited to a big league summer camp. But Billy never realized his dream, and got sidetracked.SPOILERS. As a down and out adult, not very happy, Billy gets news that Katie has died. She leaves her ashes to Billy, saying that he will know what to do with them. He is puzzled, has no clue, but gradually remembers his times with Katie, her love of the water, and scatters them at sea from a pier. He also gets the motivation to return to baseball, and that's where we found him in the opening scene. He gets on base, has to steal home from third base, mirroring a scene from his teen years. Thus the name of the movie.
