A Home of Our Own Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

A Home of Our Own Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson February 18, 2017

As the opening credits of A Home of Our Own roll, a compilation of vintage black-and-white photographs from the fifties and early sixties fill the screen. These depict typical American families in domestic and rural scenes, including the only known surviving photo from the childhood of screenwriter Patrick Sheane Duncan. Composer Michael Convertino's main theme accompanies these nostalgic images with weepy music, anchored by a solo flute as well as lush, warm strings. The montage sets the stage for a fictionalized autobiographical account of Duncan's family journey to find a dream house for his mother and siblings. Matriarch Frances Lacey (Kathy Bates) works very hard at the local potato chip factory in Los Angeles but one day, her foreman gropes her and she fights back, losing her job. After returning home to her grungy apartment, she hears a knock on her door and discovers that the police has reprimanded her oldest son, Shayne (Edward Furlong), for filching coins from a pay phone. Although Shayne is not charged, Frances decides that LA is not the ideal place to raise her six children. In a role that she was born to play, Bates imbues Frances with the can-do spirit of a Ma Joad. She packs all of their belongings into her '48 Plymouth for a road trip in search of a new home and better life. The difference between Frances and the Steinbeck character is that Ms. Lacey is leaving the West permanently and headed for the Northeast. But as it turns out, Frances takes a turn to the Northwest and stops in Nowheresville, Idaho. She and her kids notice a good-sized empty shack out in the country. Across the way in a nursery, Frances meets the proprietor, Mr. Munimura (Soon-Tek Oh), a benevolent Japanese-American who originally erected the derelict place for his son to live in. But Mr. Moon (as he comes to be called) informs Frances that his son perished in the Korean War. Since she doesn't have any money, Frances uses all of her coaxing power to persuade Mr. Moon that she and her kids can perform regular chores as a means to earn the house. Mr. Moon agrees to her offer and much of the remainder of the film is devoted to the Lacey tribe's great building project.

The Laceys head to Idaho and seek their dream home.

While a true story, as the first-person narrator makes clear at the start, A Home of Our Own is rather unoriginal. Its narrative features a very manipulative protagonist, stock characters, and contrived predicaments. But its barren rural spaces are beautifully shot by cinematographer Jean Lépine and lovingly scored by Convertino, even if the melodies pull at the heartstrings. Bates was deservedly showered with accolades by critics at the time of the movie's theatrical release. Furlong holds his own as her eldest son and man of the house. Furlong really licks his acting chops in scenes opposite Bates. Her character is a non-believer in handouts, advocating that everyone must work hard to earn what they get. She's tough on the children during Christmas, informing them that any gifts should be for the house. Furlong's Shayne is not materialistic but he wants to fit in at school and have an active social life with a girl he met during a basketball tryout. Director Tony Bill demonstrates a know-how to working with the Lacey kids. In his feature debut My Bodyguard (1980), he showed a similar aptitude to guiding young teen actors to some wonderful performances.

A Home of Our Own reminds me of another 1993 family drama released seven months apart of it: Michael Caton-Jones's This Boy's Life. Both films' stories are boyhood chronicles of poverty-stricken families who travel thousands of miles in search of a brighter future. Shayne Lacey and DiCaprio's Toby Wolff from This Boy's Life once had a biological father who either passed away or abandoned his family. De Niro's drill sergeant character, Dwight, becomes the central paternal influence in Toby's life but he's verbally and physically abusive to the young lad and his mother. We never see Shayne's real dad and the closest father figure he has is Mr. Moon, although he lives alone. The familial experiences portrayed in A Home of Our Own and This Boy's Life originate from individuals who went on to become eminent writers. Duncan, who reportedly was one of twelve children, served in Vietnam and used his experiences in the war to deploy a "combat cameraman" as the focal narrator in the 1989 film, 84 Charlie MoPic, which he wrote and directed. The Michigan-born Duncan has since gone on to write Nick of Time (1995), Mr. Holland's Opus (1995), Courage Under Fire (1996), as well as several other more recent film scripts and teleplays. In addition to penning the autobiographical memoir, This Boy's Life, Tobias Wolff has written numerous short stories and novels. I envy the lucky ones who had a chance to see both Duncan and Wolff's boyhood stories on the silver screen back in '93.

A Home of Our Own Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

A Home of Our Own makes its worldwide debut on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films. The indie label presents Bill's film in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this AVC-encoded BD-25, which carries a total bitrate of 30.40 Mbps (with an average of 26909 kbps). MGM released the movie on DVD back in 2001 with a letterboxed transfer. (I was never able to find a disc with an anamorphic transfer.) This Blu-ray represents the very best that the film has looked since its premiere. MGM gave Olive a nice print and the restored picture displays little damage. There are some speckles that crop up here and there but no noticeable defects are evident here. Grain is consistently present and not distracting; there are some shots where it sticks out with the solid black levels. There is a little bit of jitter within the frame (possibly a trail of dirt), particularly during the first two reels, but no telecine wobble. Colors are richly defined. (See the emerald green on the priest's robe in Screenshot #11.) Skin tones are subdued and appear pale, but this seems to be Tony Bill's original intent.

A Home of Our Own Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Olive has provided the film's original DTS-HD Master 2.0 Stereo, encoded at 1866 kbps (24-bit). The track retains dialogue with clarity and intelligibility. Convertino's score sounds like a cross between Aaron Copland and Thomas Newman. The music blares across the front channels without distortion. I thought the movie could have benefited from a new 5.1 remix to really open up the score but it handles the instrumentation pretty well. Sound f/x are relegated to the fronts without much separation.

Olive's optional English subtitles are a plus since MGM did not supply any on the DVD.

A Home of Our Own Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Olive has not included any bonus materials on this disc. (The MGM disc has the original theatrical trailer.)

A Home of Our Own Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A Home of Our Own is a populist family saga that is unabashedly tender and sentimental. Olive Films has delivered a sterling transfer that only contains a couple of imperfections. Fans of Bates and Furlong will want to add it to their BD collections. (My fingers are crossed that Lionsgate or another label will release the Bridges/Furlong father/son drama, American Heart.) Since A Home of Our Own is unlikely to receive a special edition, this release comes with a WARM RECOMMENDATION.