![]() He is 14, still idealistic about life, and gets a job as a messenger for the town telegram business, using a bicycle to pick up and deliver. The central character is Alex Neustaedter as Homer Macauley. Meg Ryan's son, Jack Quaid, plays the brother off to war. They are the mom and dad here but their roles are so small they could have been played by any actors. The two big names are Meg Ryan, who directs, and Tom Hanks, who is an executive producer. Set in 1942, it is at its core a coming-of-age story of the 14-yr- old boy whose father has died and older brother is fighting overseas in WW2. The characters and some references are aligned with Homer's 'Odyssey'. It is based on a 1943 novel "The Human Comedy" by William Saroyan, and is considered somewhat autobiographical, a boy growing up fatherless. It has a rather low IMDb average rating and, judging from some of the comments, it seems many just didn't get the gist of the story. We saw this at home on DVD from our public library. Put away your need for high action films and comic book heroes and CGI effects and re- visit a time in America when small towns reflected the strengths of youngsters and families affect by World War II. ITHACA is a coming-of-age story about the exuberance of youth, the abruptness of change, the sweetness of life, the sting of death, and the sheer goodness that lives in each and every one of us. Homer will grapple with one message that will change him forever. His telegraph office is run buy the elderly Grogan (Sam Shepard) and Tom Spangler (Hamish Linklater) who are supportive of their underage worker, offering sage advice and love to a frightened lad. And so it is that as spring turns to summer, 1942, Homer Macauley delivers messages of love, hope, pain. His older brother Marcus (Jack Quaid) has gone to war, leaving Homer to look after his widowed mother (Meg Ryan – his father appears as Tom Hanks), his older sister Bess (Christine Nelson) and his 4-year-old brother, Ulysses (Spencer Howell). Fourteen- year-old Homer Macauley (Alex Neustaedter) is determined to be the best and fastest bicycle telegraph messenger anyone has ever seen. The year is 1942 and the film opens with black and white broadcasts by President Roosevelt about the tragedy of Pearl Harbor. ![]() Some viewers fine this film slow and lifeless, but the true beauty of this little gem is that the actors, director, cinematographer and production crew allow it to let the tine slice of Americana speak for itself. And a good man will seek to take the pain out of things.' William Saroyan's 1943 novel THE HUMAN COMEDY, a quiet, gentle statement of finding meaning in becoming a man, has been lovingly and subtly transformed into a film by Erik Jendresen and directed with straightforward simplicity by Meg Ryan. 'There will always be pain in this world, Homer.
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