A Home at the End of the World

Cast: Colin Farrell, Dallas Roberts, Robin Wright Penn, Sissy Spacek, Matt Frewer Harris Allan, Erik Smith, Ryan Donowho, Andrew Chalmers,

A smoky-sweet appreciation is what I was left with after this movie, and not just because the music which fills it is so redolent of the smoke-and-acid-hazed 60s, 70s and 80s. A character-driven piece based on the novel by Michael Cunningham (who won a Pulitzer Prize for The Hours) this is a movie with heart and soul.

In 1967, Bobby Morrow (Andrew Chalmers) is nine and worships his elder brother Carlton (Ryan Donowho), who embodies all the flower-child values of that era: unconditional love to all, compassion, understanding and a generosity that includes giving his little brother a quarter-tab of LSD. “Window paint!” he explains, “for clarity of vision.”  From Carlton’s viewpoint, the world is “big and pretty… and there is nothing to be afraid of…”

Such euphoria cannot last and a shocking accident takes Carlton away, while Bob Dylan sings “….breaks just like a little girl”. The accident, and perhaps the acid, subsequently appears to have geared Bobby permanently on ‘open’, with a need to recreate with everyone with whom he associates the deep, loving connection he had with his brother.

At High School, after his mother dies and even before his father shortly follows suit, Bobby (now played by Erik Smith) fits himself into the Glover family. Agreeably sharing nights and sex with young, gay Jonathan (Harris Allan, Hunter in Queer As Folk), and via Laura Nyro’s evocative ‘Desirée’, he soon seduces Jonathan’s mother Alice (a seemingly ageless Sissy Spacek) into sharing reefers with the two teenage boys. Soon, he’s calling her mom and she’s baking hash cookies with which they can all watch old movies together in an epitome of 70s (alternative) family togetherness. While Jonathan appreciates the friendship, it seems like Bobby has poured himself into his family, appropriating both it and his life. Jonathan moves to New York’s East Village to attend University, while Bobby remains with Ned and Alice till they move to Arizona for Ned’s health.

Bobby, who has suffered enormous losses in his short life, cannot bear to be alone. Carrying mostly record albums in his backpack, he moves in with Jonathan (played with nuance by Dallas Roberts) in New York where he shares an apartment with an equally alternative Clare (Robin Wright Penn, an actress with apparently unlimited versatility). Clare immediately likes him but moans, “All the good ones are gay!” To which Jonathan replies, “Bobby’s not gay. I don’t know what he is.”  

Bobby at 24, played by an authentic Colin Farrell, is the kind of fluid, boundary-less person who can appreciate the melancholy of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Suzanne’ one minute and totally be into the very different otherness of Steve Reich’s ‘Music for 18 Musicians’ the next. Like a chameleon he can be happy anywhere, the suburbs, the East Village or the country, as long as he has with him the family he inevitably creates wherever he is. When Clare determinedly sets about cutting his long hair, she tells him, “If you’re not careful, you could look like someone that’s not you. You could end up living someone else’s life.” He looks at her wonderingly, “This is my life,” he says, unaware that he rarely changes himself, it’s other people and external influences that change him. He’s a man who literally dances to every kind of music with equal enjoyment.

In the 70s and 80s, alternative lifestylers were experimenting with triads, and though Bobby happily adopts the idea (and soon the reality) of a kind of threesome with baby, it proves not as easy for Jonathan and Clare. Bobby loves everyone - Jonathan, Clare and baby Rebecca. Clare hopelessly loves Jonathan, while the love of Jonathan’s life is Bobby.

Unrequited love is perennial and despite attempts at alternative lifestyles, conditioning seems to win. In a beautifully poetic and understated way the movie examines love, need and relationships, marriage and compromises, and freedom to be oneself from the perspective of two generations. However, the story is largely a personal one with many personal resonances for those who grew up in this era. With musical favourites including The Band, Paul Simon and Bob Dylan and an original soundtrack by Duncan Sheik, A Home at the End of the World evocatively and poignantly captures a time and a culture.

© Avril Carruthers                                  27^th April 2005

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