Ithaca
2015
Action / Drama / War

Ithaca
2015
Action / Drama / War
Plot summary
In a small town in California's San Joaquin Valley, 14-year-old Homer Macauley is determined to be the best and fastest bicycle telegraph messenger anyone has ever seen. His older brother has gone to war, leaving Homer to look after his widowed mother, his older sister and his 4-year-old brother, Ulysses. And so it is that as spring turns to summer, 1942, Homer Macauley delivers messages of love, hope, pain... and death... to the good people of Ithaca. And Homer Macauley will grapple with one message that will change him forever - from a boy into a man. Based on Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Saroyan's 1943 novel, The Human Comedy, ITHACA is the quintessential wartime tale of the Home Front. It is a coming-of-age story about the exuberance of youth, the sweetness of life, the sting of death and the modesty and sheer goodness that lives in each and every one of us.
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
720p.WEB 1080p.WEBMovie Reviews
A total waste of cinema
Unfocused mess that's still predictable and manipulative
This is a rather odd movie. You really want to like it because of some likable performances and characters, particularly the lead and his almost creepily precocious 4 year old brother.
But the movie can't decide what it's about. You expect it to be about the main character Homer, but it takes repeated and lengthy side excursions into other characters lives. The run time just doesn't support these excursions.
Homer has a unique coming of age story, a subtly brutal one. He takes a job as a telegram boy, unaware that he'll be soon delivering endless reports of dead soldiers to families. That's a strong arc, but it's only vaguely there.
It's painfully obvious where this is heading, his brother dying.
And what's with the names? Ithaca, Homer, Ulysses? That comes across as incredibly pretentious.
I know that's from the book, but it's an old book and that aspect doesn't age well.
As predictable as the movie is, it actually surprised me how much it worked the death of the brother. This was literally eye rolling to me. The movie just didn't earn this ending.