| | |  | Other | Home » » » A Home at the End of the World | | | | | | | Description: | | From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hours comes a story that chronicles a dozen years in the lives of two best friends. The film charts a journey of trials, triumphs, loves and losses. Now the question is: can they navigate the unusual triangle they've created and hold their friendship together?DVD Features:
Featurette:The Journey Home: behind-the-scenes featurette
Theatrical Trailer
| | | Features: | |
• From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hours comes a story that chronicles a dozen years in the lives of two best friends. The film charts a journey of trials, triumphs, loves and losses. Now the question is: can they navigate the unusual triangle they've created and hold their friendship together?Running Time: 96 min. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R Age: 08
| | | Product Details: | | | Actors:
| Colin Farrell, Robin Wright Penn, Dallas Roberts, Sissy Spacek | | Director:
| Michael Mayer | | Format:
| AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen, Surround Sound | | Language:
| English | | Subtitle:
| Spanish, English, French | | Number of Discs:
| 1 | | Studio:
| Warner Home Video | | Run Time:
| 96 minutes | | DVD Release Date:
| November 02, 2004 | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 126 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 126 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
195 of 214 found the following review helpful:
What a Wonderful World it Could BeSep 12, 2004
By A. Hickman
Here's another DVD I'll definitely be buying when it comes out later this year. "A Home at the end of the World" is one of the most frustrating, yet also one of the most rewarding, films I've seen in a while. Fright wigs aside, it does a masterful job of evoking the late `60s in America. People have a habit of dying around 14-year-old Bobby Morrow: first his brother (in the film's most visually arresting scene), then his mother, and then his father. This sets up a situation wherein Bobby must move in with the family of his best friend from school, Jonathan Glover. When the two boys sleep together, even before Bobby moves in permanently, Jonathan puts the moves on him, and, wondrously, Bobby gets involved. The two are inseparable until Jonathan's mother (played by the luminous Sissy Spacek) discovers them in a VW together and Jonathan pulls away from Bobby. Jonathan ultimately moves to New York, but Bobby stays behind with the Glovers, until, eight years later, daddy Glover decides that it's time Bobby move out on his own. Bobby follows Jonathan to New York, only to be rejected once again by his childhood friend, at which point he turns to Jonathan's roommate, the free-spirited Clare, for solace. What follows is fairly predictable if you've seen any movies about gay relationships in the late seventies and early eighties, but the part that rings true is the self-destructive relationship between the male leads. Jonathan wants no one but Bobby, but can't appreciate that he already has him. Bobby wants Jonathan, but is willing to "settle" for a relationship with Clare, especially when it comes with the promise of a family and a child. Jonathan throws himself into a promiscuous lifestyle and pays the price all movie homosexuals must pay for sleeping around. But Bobby is still there. And the question becomes, why? Is Bobby fundamentally gay or bi or neuter? Does it matter? Bobby, as played by Colin Farrell, is infinitely vulnerable (his younger avatar, Eric Smith, seems much more of an adult than the childlike Farrell); Bobby just wants a family. He loves the people who are willing to fill that void in his life. These include Jonathan, Clare, their daughter, and the Glovers. His pansexuality is a product of need. I kind of like this concept. Before Oscar Wilde, people for the most part had sex. They didn't worry about labels, because the labels didn't exist. Sodomy was a behavior disapproved of by the church, but the implication is that people engaged in it anyway. So who were these sodomites? They were probably people like Bobby, who were just looking for love. It's the Jonathans of this world who need the labels, and it's the labels that lead to heartbreak. Thanks are due to novelist and screenwriter Michael ("The Hours") Cunningham for reminding us of this basic fact. Further kudos are due to a soundtrack that includes Laura Nyro, Leonard Cohen, and Dusty Springfield.
69 of 78 found the following review helpful:
 A Small, Quiet But Beautiful MovieJul 31, 2004
By H. F. Corbin
"Foster Corbin"
One of the characters in this moving film says that there is a big, beautiful, noisy world out there. Thought quiet and small, this movie is certainly beautiful. Written by Michael Cunningham (THE HOURS) and based on his novel by the same name, this film stars Colin Farrell (Bobby), Robin Wright Penn (Clare), Dallas Roberts (Jonathan) and Sissy Spacek as Alice, Jonathan's mother. It's difficult to single out one of these four as being better than the others; they all give extraordinary performances. The action begins in 1967 In Cleveland, jumps to 1974 and then to 1982 in New York City. The film is essentially about making a home, redefining family--our family consists of those who love us-- seizing the day, living life-- as Tennyson would say- to the lees.
There are funny moments here-- as in any life-- I'm thinking now of the hilarious scene where the teenaged Bobby gets Jonathan's mom to smoke her first joint-- and many nice touches. The same mom, who becomes his mom after the death of his parents, teaches Bobby the secrets of baking a pie, a skill he later uses as a grownup when he and Jonathan open their own "Home" restaurant. The clothes and household furnishings look and feel right for the period; the soundtrack contains music of the times, some Dylan, Leonard Cohen and a little Mozart, (COSI FAN TUTTI) which is so appropriate since in much of Mozart as if every life, there is often sorrow just beneath the joy.
Predictably, the media have made much of Mr. Farrell's nixing his frontal nudity shot. He is absolutely right for such a scene would have been completely gratuitous. He looks fine fully clothed.
When I saw the movie, at the end the entire audience was completely silent and did not move for most of the credits, a sure sign that this film was a success. Surely A HOME AT THE END OF THE WORLD will be one of the best movies of the year.
24 of 26 found the following review helpful:
Don't Miss This OneOct 07, 2004
By Purchaser of this Product
"pareader1121"
This movie soars with its examination of relationships, family, and enduring friendships. Colin Farrell portrays his character with an honesty and depth that many other actors couldn't carry. Sissy Spacek - wow, great role, great job. What was ultimately uplifting about this movie to me was that at the end it rose above the gay cliches and examined the beautiful, deep relationship between Jonathan and Bobby, without focusing on the sexual aspects. This really isn't a 'gay' movie, its a movie that has a gay angle. While the movie may not be upbeat, I believe most viewers will leave the theater feeling uplifted. Do yourself a favor, catch this one.
10 of 10 found the following review helpful:
A Beautiful Book Made VisualJul 25, 2004
By Grady Harp
A HOME AT THE END OF THE WORLD is one of those films where the novel upon which a movie is based is illuminated by the cinematic version. Michael Cunningham is both the author and the screenwriter and for most of the film that transfer works. There are little subtleties in this story that in the novel enriched the character motivation: both boys lost a brother - Bobby's older brother /mentor dies in a freak accident, Jonathan's brother died in childbirth; Bobby's connect with Jonathan's mother is tighter in that they open a restaurant together when Jonathan leaves home setting the stage for a more credible closeness than the relationship in the film, etc etc. But these were obviously omissions elected by Cunningham who is responsible for both forms of his touching tale, and he must have had his reasons.
But what Cunningham and director Michael Mayer have brought to the screen is a tender, wholly credible story of the universal need for a sense of 'home'. Developing the story in a linear fashion, we meet the two 15 year old boys who bond in high school and when Bobby (Erik Smith - definitely an actor to watch!) loses not only his brother but his mother then his father, he seeks refuge in Jonathan's (Harris Allan) home and is greeted with love and compassion by Jonathan's mother (Sissy Spacek - in clearly the most subtle role of her amazing career), his emphysemic father, and of course, the closeted Jonathan. Bobby is the quintessence of the open loving child and shares this love with Jonathan both in and out of bed, and even introduces Jonathan AND his mother to marijuana. All is well in this perfect household until Jonathan (now Dallas Roberts) leaves home for New York. Bobby now (Colin Farrell) stays behind and becomes a baker.
Jonathan comes out of the closet in New York, lives the gay life, but rooms with an older edgy hippie woman Clare (Robin Wright Penn) in a fanciful platonic relationship. When Jonathan's parents must move from their home in Cleveland to the more pulmonary-friendly Phoenix, Bobby loses his 'home', calls Jonathan, and treks from Cleveland to New York to live with Jonathan and Clare. This menage-a-trois works very well - for a while. Jonathan still is in love with Bobby and Bobby loves Jonathan and they both love Clare. Clare introduces Bobby to heterosexual love and begins to sleep with Bobby. Feeling an outsider, Jonathan leaves for Phoenix, but when his father dies, Bobby and Clare visit, revitalize their bond, and return to the East Coast to find a house for the now pregnant Clare. They end up in Woodstock, set up house, open a cafe where both men work, and the baby is born. Life changes in many ways and the story winds down in ways that should not be shared before the film is viewed.
For all the promise that Colin Farrell made in TIGERLAND and his subsequent movies, nothing will prepare you for the quality of acting this fine young thespian provides. How refreshing it is to see an actor media-bilked as the ultimate Macho Man melt into the graces of such a lovely human being as Bobby. His physicality with Jonathan is natural and never pushed: he seems to the role born. Here is a true bisexual character whose ability to love transcends the physical, making his encounters in bed with both Jonathan and Clare almost incidental. The dialogue is filled with treasured moments: the frequent scenes of Bobby inviting Jonathan to dance, the fathomless chemistry between Sissy Spacek and Colin Farrell (and also to a degree with Dallas Roberts and Robin Wright Penn), the open joy in Bobby's eyes whenever he feels his love returned - all of these are magic and unforgettable. Why this film opened in so few theaters in so few cities is very odd, because this is a movie that deserves the widest possible audience for many, many reasons.
20 of 24 found the following review helpful:
Slow, elegant, and beautiful, but ended too fastAug 08, 2004
By Mark Twain
"Sam"
I was slightly disappointed by A Home at the End of the World, probably because I was expecting too much. The film was very enjoyable; well-written, well-acted and engrossing, but some of the dialogue seemed a bit forced and it really felt like chunks of the story were left out, especially toward the end. The film moved slowly, but unravelled beautifully, and at a mere 93 minutes, I really wish it had been fleshed out because I would have liked it a lot more. It seemed that after the hour mark, the writer (who brilliantly adapted The Hours from his own novel) seemed to want to finish the film without giving the audience any thought. That didn't do it for me. I needed more insight into why the characters did what they did. The ending felt so rushed that it didn't make much sense.
That is my only complaint for the film because the story was fantastic, especially for any gay adolescent who has felt some sort of attraction toward a straight best friend. The film is a journey, which begins in the late 60s and ends in the early 80s, into the lives of these two friends, one gay and one straight. Colin Farrel, who I never gave much thought to before, was fantastic in the film, bringing such vulnerable innocence to his character that I couldn't help falling for him. Robin Wright Penn delivered the usual terrific performance as the woman who comes between the two friends, and Sissy Spacek stole every scene she iwas in, especially in the beginning of the film. Dallas Roberts was fantastic as Jonathon, who feels Bobby (Farrell) has not only stolen his family, but his roomate (Penn).
This was a great film; slow, elegant, and beautiful, but it should have been longer. I wouldn't be surprised to see 20 minutes of deleted scenes on the DVD. I will definitely be reading the novel for more insight into these fantastic characters. The film is highly recommended, but I wish it had more of an ending.
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