Dave from Ottawa Athletes often face a rough mid-life period as their skills diminish and their careers wind down, since their sport so defines who and what they are. This topic has great potential for drama and poignancy, yet few good films have been made on the subject. This movie has a beautifully sad central love story, with aging minor league ballplayer Billy Wyatt (Mark Harmon) remembering the (then) older woman who inspired him so many years before (Jodie Foster), and trying to come to terms with the route his career and life have taken. So, he returns to his hometown, connects with his high school best friend (Harold Ramis) and starts looking into his past for answers, while much of the film plays out in flashback, recounting his bittersweet teen years, when everything was ahead of him but his own goals and motivations were elusive. What makes the film watchable is the complexity of the central relationship, as the mature Billy realizes that the most important woman in his life arrived when he was too young to appreciate her. The movie is quite beautiful to look at with its clean-scrubbed view of small town life and high school sports, and the characters are engaging to follow. This is not a great movie by any means. Like Billy Wyatt himself, this one just misses hitting the major leagues, but it IS enjoyable in a low key way, and the lack of interesting movies on this potentially interesting subject makes it a bit special.

wndrboy2 I first fell for this movie because of a laughable misunderstanding. Now I still love it for its true beautifulness and grace.I'm a Chinese. In 1993, after graduating from a college, I went to work for a company in a city only minutes north of HongKong. At the time, my English was not good enough for me to fully enjoy English movies. I have to use a lot of guessing to fill in the blanks. One night "Stealing Home" was on a HongKong movie channel. I wasn't very interested during the first half and often switched to other channels for a while. For that reason and my not-so-good English, I thought Jodie Foster was the guy's older sister.Then the story started to grab me and made me put down the remote. Then they made love! Wow ! You may imagine how shocked I was to see the supposed brother and sister have sex. But in fact it wasn't very hard for me to quickly make sense of their intimacy -- there is a special bond between them, they are both at the rock bottom of life, and only have each other in the whole damn world. I felt it was something that I'd never do (I don't have a sister, so don't call me a pervert), but in a way understandable and even quite brave if the characters are in extreme situations. I remember saying to myself:"The director must be a genius who truly understands human emotions." Years later, I came to U.S. and rented the movie from a Blockbuster. After knowing that Jodie Foster was just the guy's baby-sitter, I didn't regret a bit for ever loving the movie for the wrong reason. Many beautiful scenes, such as Jodie Foster smokes while driving, and the mom cries while watching the home video, will stay with me forever.BTW, there is actually an amazing movie captured the kind of special bond and even intimacy between a brother and a sister--- The Dreamers. And the director, Bernardo Bertolucci, is widely hailed as a movie genius. Well, that makes me feel better. LOL.

flowoftheheart This movie is so underrated!!! Wow!I've seen this movie dozens of times and I never, ever get tired of it. I think the acting is superb, the story line well-thought out, even the 'chessy' 80's music is sure to 'turn on the waterworks' in certain scenes.The story is about Billy Wyatt, a recently retired minor league baseball player, who is pretty far from 'functional' at the start of the film. In the beginning of the movie, he receives a sudden phone call at the motel he's 'shacking up' in giving him the news...he is left with Katie Chandler's (his childhood baby sitter) ashes, as she had shot herself at SeaSmoke, her beachside cottage.This movie will make you laugh, cry, and feel!!The story is a balance of flashbacks of Billy remembering his dad and Katie and then the challenge of him trying to figure out what to do with Katie's ashes.It is such a beautiful film, I promise worth seeing!10/10 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"Dream, dream, dream, when I want you in my arms, When I want you and all your charms; When I'm with you.... all I have to do is dream"~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TxMike "Stealing Home" takes place over a number of years, perhaps 25 or so, from the 1960s to the 1980s. Billy Wyatt as a young boy of 10 has Katie Chandler (20-something Jodie Foster, playing a 16-year old) as a babysitter. Katie is unconventional, smokes and borrows the car without permission, and Billy is attracted to that. Even with their difference in ages, Billy never gives up.Mark Harmon plays the adult 30-something Billy, and as the movie opens we see him arriving at a baseball stadium, not major leagues, at 5:45AM, he stripes the field, does a few other things, and dresses into his uniform. Most of the movie is then told in flashback.As a teenager Billy (William McNamara) was a promising ballplayer, and was even invited to a big league summer camp. But Billy never realized his dream, and got sidetracked.SPOILERS. As a down and out adult, not very happy, Billy gets news that Katie has died. She leaves her ashes to Billy, saying that he will know what to do with them. He is puzzled, has no clue, but gradually remembers his times with Katie, her love of the water, and scatters them at sea from a pier. He also gets the motivation to return to baseball, and that's where we found him in the opening scene. He gets on base, has to steal home from third base, mirroring a scene from his teen years. Thus the name of the movie.