Digging to China

I will have to say that I enjoyed this movie and that is saying something! I caught the movie on cable tv and I stayed with it to the end and I am glad that I did. Kevin Bacon not only proves he is one of the finest actors around but his young costar is a shining example of the talent in Hollywood! Check this one out, Greg

I was never a Kevin Bacon fan until I saw "Digging to China." His portrayal of a retarded individual was wonderful and Evelyn Rachael Wood establishes herself as a marvelous actress. This movie did not get the raves that it deserves. I would suggest that anyone who has not seen this should get a copy right away.

When I see a movie and I see within it a splicing of two or more movies I never know what to expect, even if it is two or more movies I like. "Digging to China" was a combination of good movies and it was also par excellence itself.

"Digging to China" centered around Harriet Frankovitz (Evan Rachel Wood), a 10-year-old girl with a wild imagination, a fascination with the National Enquirer, and desperate to run away from home. It wasn't that her home life was all that bad, she was simply detached from her alcoholic and lethargic mother (Cathy Moriarty) and her promiscuous sister Gwen (Mary Stuart Masterson).

Harriet was delivered a good and needed friend in Ricky Schroth (Kevin Bacon) when his mother's car broke down. Harriet struck a deep yet socially weird friendship with Ricky, a mentally handicapped adult male who operated on the level of a 10-year-old.

First, I want to give props to Timothy Hutton on his first and only directorial job for a feature length movie. You may know him very well as an actor in movies such as: "Taps," "The Falcon and the Snowman," "Q & A," "The Dark Half," and others. I wouldn't say he was a mega-star, but he was well recognized.

Secondly, I love this movie. It is so simple, pure, and touching. Both Wood and Bacon were phenomenal. Their friendship just melts the heart though you know it is not entirely appropriate nor is it sustainable. All you want for them is to enjoy each other's company and comfort each other for the short amount of time they will be together. It was so pure and innocent you couldn't help but be moved.

Digging to China is an unpretentious little movie. No great moral lessons are promoted here. It plays out within the limited area of a small resort motel, an old barn, the surrounding woods and streams, an elementary school, the connecting highways, a deserted caboose, and a school bus - with brief side trips to a cemetery and a hospital. No profound messages are involved; it doesn't probe the depths of the human condition. It's merely the story of the friendship between ten-year-old Harriet, a bright, imaginative loner, and Ricky, a man with special learning and behavioral handicaps. The relationship grows as each faces a major emotional life adjustment.

For a little movie, Digging to China is loaded with fantastic, deeply affecting, unforgetable images.

Tim Hutton is to be congratulated for putting this simple story together as a, yes, classic movie. Mary Stuart Masterson, quite possibly the most under-rated actress of our time, brings dignity to the evolving character of Gwen, who is determined to learn her new responsibilities. Kevin Bacon reads the part of the hurting Ricky with great sensitivity.

By its nature, the whole movie rides on the tiny shoulders of Evan Rachel Wood, and she carries it flawlessly. She can display a range of emotions many more experienced actors would kill for. In a few short minutes Miss Wood's features can slide subtly from questioning, to hopefully anxious, to happy, to forlorn - a masterpiece of acting.

Sensitive viewers will feel better for seeing it.

Timothy Hutton and the cast of "Digging to China" deserve an "A" for effort and for having their hearts in the right place. Despite some awkward writing and a not entirely successful performance by Kevin Bacon, this film mostly succeeds by making you feel the deep need the characters have to connect with one another. Some scenes feel contrived, but the performances overcome this for the most part. Bacon is OK once you get used to him, but his performance feels a bit studied and overly mannered -- it doesn't flow as naturally as Leonardo DiCaprio's similar performance in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?"

This movie shares some plotting and themes with "Lawn Dogs" -- in both films an older man befriends a lonely and odd young girl; people misunderstand and violence results -- which to me was a better movie. But "Digging to China" certainly deserves more attention than its gotten. The performance of Evan Rachel Wood as Harriet is one of the most amazing performances by a young actor I've seen in ages.