Movie Monday ~ "Canvas" & "Digging for China"

I searched for a couple of movies to watch one evening last week when I wasn't feeling 100%. Couldn't countenance a lot of gun fire, violence or heaving bare buttocks. We decided to try these two, and were not disappointed. Both are available on Amazon Prime.

There's similarity in the two movies' themes, in that a main character in each has mental disabilities. Even if you don't fancy the storylines, the movies are well worth seeing if purely to watch superb performances by Marcia Gaye Harden, in "Canvas", and Kevin Bacon in "Digging to China".

Marcia Gaye Harden's character, in "Canvas", is schizophrenic. Kevin Bacon's character in "digging to China son of an aging mother, was born "blue" and now retains the mental capacity of a child.

"Canvas" was one of the most compelling films that I have ever seen. Young Devon Gearhardt was enthralling, focusing the audience as we watch him grow through a very difficult time. Joe Pantoliano and Marcia Gay Harden are equally transcendent, as this movie shines from start to finish. The cinematography and score stood out as especially interesting technical elements.

In this story of a family with a schizophrenic mother, all the actors perform beautifully. I hope everyone gets a chance to see this film, and I highly recommend it. It is a story of tragic brilliance while being both uplifting and informative. A must-see, for certain.
-mrfantasticF4. (From IMDb User Reviews)

 The film becomes even more poignant when one realises it is based on a true story:
“Canvas,” Joseph Greco’s drama about schizophrenia, is obviously a labor of love. In his director’s note Mr. Greco writes, “I grew up watching my mother battle schizophrenia, and those harrowing memories had a profound impact on me.” He adds that a screenwriting professor once told him, “Write what you know.” That advice has resulted in a movie that rings emotionally true, despite structural contrivances and dim, washed-out color.

"Digging to China"

10-year-old Harriet dreams of leaving her home, where she doesn't feel she's needed by her mother and sister Gwen. When her mother dies in a car accident, she really starts to make plans for leaving and she finally does so together with her childlike (mentally ill) friend Ricky. Written by Anonymous at IMDb

Harriet, a ten-year old girl, lives together with her big sister and her alcoholic mother out in the countryside. The family runs a motel. Harriet is different from the others, as she owns a great creativity and has nobody to play with. Her infinite world exists only in her mind. One day, Ricky comes along. He is a grown-up, but intellectually disabled son of an elderly lady. Soon, Harriet and Ricky share their experiences of life from a different point of view and become close friends. But his mother still plans to give Ricky away into professional care in a home, because she won't live forever to be there for him.
—Julian Reisch, IDMb User Reviews.

"Digging to China" is an unpretentious little movie. No great moral lessons are promoted here. It plays out within the limited area of a small resort motel, an old barn, the surrounding woods and streams, an elementary school, the connecting highways, a deserted caboose, and a school bus - with brief side trips to a cemetery and a hospital. No profound messages are involved; it doesn't probe the depths of the human condition. It's merely the story of the friendship between ten-year-old Harriet, a bright, imaginative loner, and Ricky, a man with special learning and behavioral handicaps. The relationship grows as each faces a major emotional life adjustment.

For a little movie, Digging to China is loaded with fantastic, deeply affecting, unforgetable images.
- G Kearns, IMDb User Reviews.