Director Timothy Hutton together with an ensemble of right on performances
turns
what could be a weepy tale of friendship between a retarded man and an 11
year
old girl into a deeply moving story on the power of love and on the need for
human
connection. Evan Rachel Wood is without a false note in her portrayal of
Harriet,
a little girl who searches for escape from her dreary life into an elaborate
and
eccentric fantasy world. She is looked at as slightly goofy by her
classmates, a
spirited handful by her alcoholic 'mother', and a major pain in the butt by
her
promiscuous older 'sister'. It isn 't until Ricky, played by Kevin Bacon,
and his
mother come to stay at the family's motel cabins, on their way to bringing
Ricky to
an institution, that Harriet finds a real kindred spirit. After Harriet's
'mother' is killed
suddenly in an auto accident (she had a tendency to drive on the wrong side
of the
highway) a crucial family secret is revealed. The freindship between these
two
outsiders begins to deepen. Despite the obvious obstacles of age and
mental
condition each provides a connection which the other needs, a relationship
which
allows Harriet's imagination to florish and Ricky to feel valued and fully
human for
the first time. As the the two other women in Harriet's family (who all
look
surprisingly alike enough to be a family), Cathy Moriarty and Mary Stuart
Masterson
are beautifully understated in their performances. Despite the problems in
lives of
these women each is characterized with the same indominatable spirit. We see
the
same spark in each of their personalities, each at a different stage of
defeat and
resignation. The struggle for them is not to let life's circumstances defeat
them. For
Harriet and for Ricky there develops a real love and freindship which is
unique and
wonderful but, as the title suggests, it is a relationship which is both
dangerous and
inevitably hopeless. First time director Timothy Hutton brings the same
intellegence
and thoughtfulness to his directing that he brings to his acting. He has
created a
great looking film and helped create some marvelous and honest performances.
The
visual scheme of the film effectivly captures many its themes of
connection,
entrapment, secrecy, and fantasy in a way that is rare in American
commercial
moviemaking. His camera also tends to sit low, giving us a child's eye view.
He
sometimes even allows the camera to literally participate in the world
through
Harriet's imagination. By not burdening us with extraneous details
concerning the
women's relationships with male characters (except for Ricky) he allows
these
characters to exist in their own emotional space. The music is artfully
chosen.
Digging to China captures the struggles of coming of age as well as the
power of
love and of the imagination to make our connections to one another richer
and
stronger. It is a carefully conceived, powerfully acted, and beautifully
directed film. It transcends its familiar territory with style and grace.
Take the kids and trancend the cynical.
This is one of the best films I've seen all year.