Touching Home Review

Touching Home is a true story written and directed by Logan and Noah Miller about their relationship with their late father. With no previous experience of working in film and a budget of $2million (small beer in movieland), they have created an interesting and sensitive, if workmanlike film. Touching Home sees the twin brothers striving to break into professional baseball whilst dealing with their homeless and alcoholic father Charlie, played by an excellent Ed Harris.

Whilst the film is an impressive achievement in and of itself, though it pains me to say it, Touching Home is simply a little dull. It tends to meander and dwell too much where succinctness and implication would serve the film better and feels rather baggy around the edges. There’s a very televisual feel to proceedings, which marred my enjoyment somewhat.

That said, the cast are excellent. Alongside Harris, Robert Forster (probably best known for his brilliant performance in Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown and currently appearing inAlcatraz) does himself proud as the town’s fatherly cop and the boy’s former coach. Credit is also due to Brad Dourif, who gives a sensitive performance as Clyde, Charlie’s brother with learning difficulties. Logan and Noah Miller, who play fictionalised versions of themselves, are also good.

Baseball is seemingly the medium required to tell the stories of American sons struggling to come to terms with the lives of their fathers. See also Field of Dreams and The Open Road. I’m not really a fan of the former (sacrilege to many, apparently) and I doubt the latter will have set many people’s world alight. Perhaps being British and only really caring about one sport that isn’t baseball makes it difficult for me to engage properly with these films. Touching Home may not reverse the trend I’ve just strung together of slightly ropey father-son baseball dramas, but heck, it’s at least as good as those other two and is much more authentic in its affectionate, yet honest portrayal of a deeply flawed individual.