Homestead (#629)


On a frigid Saturday before Christmas, I went to a crowded multiplex theater and was one of 4 people watching HOMESTEAD. The rest of the hoards were in theaters showing the two other new releases— the Disney production of Mufasa: The Lion King and the animated Sonic 6 (or whatever number this one is).  My film was a deep drama depicting the virtual destruction of America by a nuclear weapon or weapons and a group of people who join others in an isolated fortress in the Rockies.  It was designed to be a self-sufficient enclave determined to limit the number of people there by being protected by armed security people. A racially mixed family is there because the husband has been hired to head the security effort.  It is an interesting film with no recognizable actors and has a great deal of suspense and anxiety and pathos, particularly the plight of the people outside the gates in dire circumstances who are refused admittance.  I was constantly thinking throughout the hour and 45 minute film that this could conceivably happen and it evoked a sense of fear in me.  I thought it was a sound and good film until the end which made me feel I was tricked, and of course I won't reveal why.  Only 40% of critics gave Homestead a thumbs up, while 79% of the audiences liked it.  Perhaps they had the same visceral reaction to it as I did.

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