Watched: 12/22/2025
Format: Disc
Viewing: First
Director: Glen Pitre
There's a lot going on in Home Front (aka: The Scoundrel's Wife - 2002). Some might argue too much.
A period piece taking place mostly during World War II, it's about a woman and her family living on Louisiana's Gulf Coast, who are pariahs already when the war breaks out. It seems some years before the woman (Tatum O'Neal) and her husband may have gotten up to misdeeds that will be shared later.
It's a bit of a frustrating movie because it's a look at some real life things - that German U-Boats were off the US coast causing havoc, there was concern about internal collaborators, etc.... And some of this forgotten history is illuminated brilliantly, really, as O'Neal's family is awakened by a fire's glow off in the distance, out over the water as a U-Boat hits a shipping vessel.
Meanwhile, life in the small fishing village carries on for O'Neal and her teenage son, Blue, and her daughter, Florida (Chabert), just aging into adulthood. A doctor moves in nextdoor, but he has what seems to be a German accent (Julian Sands). Meanwhile, the town Priest (Tim Curry) wrestles with alcohol.
We don't tend to think about Germany or Japan making inroads in North America or threatening the US Coastline, but, Germany had successful operations in the Gulf of Mexico for quite a while. They were prepping for war while we were worrying about not getting involved (isolationism never works, chums).
Anyway, the film piles on idea after idea, and none of them are bad ideas on their own, but trying to get them all in one place, accurate or not, means the plot is muddied and the *point* of the story gets lost until the ending when they say it out loud. Which of these stories are we telling? Because at the end, the moral of the story is "you can reinvent yourself", but... man, is this a shaggy dog story to get there. So many diversions and plot bits that would work in a novel, but in a movie come off as stops and starts.
SPOILERS
The idea is that Julian Sands is a Jewish doctor placed in the town by a Jewish aid society, but it turns out he's *actually* a Gypsy/ Romany (there's a super awkward scene where he does not like the use of the term "gypped" early on, and it's a massive, flashing neon arrow of where this is going) who is NOT a doctor, but now he has to be one? It's weird. And potentially very dangerous.
The villain of the story is a young man put in charge of security of the fishing village (and who is sporting a very 00's-era haircut in a movie about 1942). He's being asked to find a spy, so he makes one up? And then tries to SA Lacey Chabert?
We also learn the reason O'Neal is eyed with suspicion is that about a decade earlier, she'd been working with her husband to sneak in Chinese illegal immigrants in barrels when they were raided, and he started throwing the barrels overboard. It's super fucked up.
Anyway, it is A LOT. And while I do think at the end they manage to pull the threads together as O'Neal echoes Sands' comments about reinventing oneself (something illustrated by Chabert going glam girl after leaving and coming back) it feels like there were less windy ways to get to the point - which has to almost be spoken out loud.
I haven't even gotten into Tim Curry's part and how he relates, but he and O'Neal are frankly elevating the material, and it's a reminder how good both of them are.
Is it stupid? No. But it's a messy movie. There's enough plot here for a TV mini-series or first season of prestige TV condensed to two hours. It would have been nice to cut some of it and make sure we're focusing on the right things to convey the point, and maybe make the villain less of a handsome cartoon.
And while I dislike bad accents, weirdly this movie about 1940's deeply rural Louisiana sees only Chabert trying one on (my understanding is her family is in part from Louisiana, so... fair). Which means the 1900-born character played by O'Neal sounds like she's from Southern California. She also looks a bit... great? for a woman in her position at that time (someone who spends all day on fishing/ crabbing/ shrimping boats. She always looks like someone headed for the farmer's market, and a lot of the rest of the wardrobe worn by others never looks quite grimy enough for what should be the work they're all doing.
Anyway, I liked parts of this movie, and Tatum O'Neal is really solid. I'm not sure why this movie basically never got any real distribution - but it was going up against Spider-Man's and Star Warses, I'd guess.
Chabert is still very young here - I'd guess 19? But she makes some great choices, and I think works well. During an era where she was being cast as the hot girl in teen romps, or the good girl in other movies, she got to work with name talent and do some character work. Respect.
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