MVD Entertainment Group has tabbed Feb. 08 for its next addition to its popular “Marquee Collection” line of Blu-ray and DVD film releases.
The title in question is actor-turn-director Timothy Hutton’s 1998 film adaptation of Karen Janszen’s AFI Chesterfield Fellowship-winning script, Digging to China.
It was her first stab at screenwriting and the directing debut of Oscar-winning actor (Best Supporting Actor for Ordinary People in 1980) Timothy Hutton … Digging to China was also the theatrical debut of Evan Rachel Wood (she had appeared in a couple of MOWs previously … later, she would get nominated for back-to-back Emmy Awards for her performance as Dolores in the Westworld cable series).
The film was “previewed” at the Giffoni Film Festival in Italy during the summer of 1997, played at Sundance the following January and then got what was equivalent to an ever-so-brief arthouse run during the post-Labor Day period in 1998. The DVD, now long out of print, arrived in November of 1999. This Feb. 08 release from MVD Entertainment Group marks the film’s debut on Blu-ray.
This is a throw-back story taking place in North Carolina in the 1960s, and it is here that we meet ten-year old Harriet Frankovitz (Evan Rachel Wood), who lives with her older sister, Gwen (Mary Stuart Masterson), a teen who sleeps with anything that has a heartbeat, and their mother (Cathy Moriarty), who owns and runs a seedy tourist motel.
Harriet and Gwen’s mother drinks and has driving skills that are somewhat challenged … call that foreshadowing as this will come into play as the story progresses.
Meanwhile, the terminally-ill Leah Schroth (played by Marian Seldes) has decided that it would be best for her mentally-challenged adult son, Ricky (Kevin Bacon), to be institutionalized so he can be properly cared for. When her car breaks down on the trip to the “care facility,” guess where Leah and Ricky end up. At the seedy motel run by Harriet’s mom.
Without giving away all of the plot elements — remember, the film has been virtually unseen for some 20 years — the foreshadowing of events kick-in, Harriet learns a “family” secret and she takes Ricky with her into the nearby woods to escape the drama that is playing out in her life. They set up “house,” but life and events have a way of catching up … sad and bittersweet.
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