Flawless Kathy Bates performance

“A Home of Our Own” is a bootstrap family drama, one that comes with a degree of truth to it but also a lot of phony Hollywood uplift and TV Movie of The Week vibes. Still, it has Kathy Bates and that’s its best quality. She plays Frances Lacey, a single mother of 6 in the 1950’s who moves her big family out of L.A in the hopes of a better life. Broke but hopeful, they all find a rundown shack positioned right across from a nursery and she convinces the owner, Mr. Moon (Soon-Teck Oh), to trade her the land for manual labor and soon they are slowly adding on to the shack using whatever old junk they can find. It’s a story of gumption, and Bates brings a lot to it. Frances is the film’s most interesting case study; someone who’s had her share of mistakes and poor choices in men who nonetheless has grown from them. No-nonsense and no stranger to callused hard work, she’s fiercely independent, unwilling to accept charity and too proud, at first, to see that some of her choices are to the detriment of her own children, even as she works toward the contrary. One Christmas morning scene where she’s torn between putting more money into the house or toward the kid’s Christmas presents is particularly heart-wrenching. The film’s message of accepting help is a sweet one and I like the relationship established between the family and Mr. Moon. It’s strange how these little children are very adept at carpentry work though. Also how all the conflicts seem to come and go without much fuss. Also the melodramatic stuff where Edward Furlong’s oldest son doesn’t have Frances’ same, enduring hope. It always feels like a lite, stereotypical view of growing up in poverty but thanks to Bates, and “My Bodyguard” director Tony Bill, there’s just enough hardship in the execution to make you feel the weight of growing up like this.


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