just watch it!

Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Jodie Foster is radiant in an Oscar-worthy performance as a whimsical free-spirit without rules whose failed marriages and unfulfilled plans to see the world lead to a tragic demise calling Mark Harmon on a sentimental journey home to tend to the ashes of his erstwhile babysitter, friend and onetime lover. Engaging tale told in flashbacks reminding the aimless Harmon, in a role shared with William McNamara and Thacher Goodwin at different points in his life, to return to the game he left prematurely after his error cost his team a game: "You're a ballplayer, that's who you are," the stunning Foster counsels him retroactively. Jonathan Silverman and Harold Ramis are both terrific as the sex-crazed buddy Alan Appleby. Veteran character actor Richard Jenkins is solid as Foster's grieving and numb father. Helen Hunt appears briefly as Harmon's pregnant sister. May be too melancholy for some but offers many rewards, including a beautiful musical score by David Foster and many classic hits from the 60's. Look for ex-Baltimore Orioles hero and former Brewers coach Rich Dauer as Harmon's San Bernardino Spirit Manager and All-Star first baseman Wally Joyner on the mound surrendering Harmon's triple in final sequence. Contains just a few baseball scenes but the scruffy Harmon looks the part of a has-been ballplayer throughout. A real treat.

This movie for me is like a warm blanket. I have to watch it at least once a year. I stumbled across it when it was on late one night here in Oz & from the first few minutes I was hooked. It is just such a magical story. I LOVE, love, love everything about it, the actors, their characters, the first love, the relationships, the setting, the era, it's just wonderful. Not to mention the freaking AWESOME soundtrack. Billy's house & the summer house on the beach are the kind of homes everyone would love to grow up in, they are perfect places for childhood, adolescent & adult memories to be nurtured. 'Be my friend' watch this movie,it is inspiring. :)

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 ****

"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.