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Stealing Home

Stealing Home

Drama · Romance · 1988

Billy Wyatt, a former high school and minor-league baseball player, receives a telephone call from his mother revealing that his former child-sitter, and later in his teens, his first love, Katie Chandler, has died. Wyatt returns home to deal with this tragedy, reminiscing over his childhood growing up with his father, Katie, and best friend Alan Appleby.

Movie details

Stealing Home

“Stealing hearts, stealing laughs, stealing memories”

1988 Drama · Romance 1h 38m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.3 / 10

Community rating

Billy Wyatt, a former high school and minor-league baseball player, receives a telephone call from his mother revealing that his former child-sitter, and later in his teens, his first love, Katie Chandler, has died. Wyatt returns home to deal with this tragedy, reminiscing over his childhood growing up with his father, Katie, and best friend Alan Appleby.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Stealing Home?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Steven Kampmann · William Porter

Written by

Steven Kampmann · William Porter

Mark Harmon

Mark Harmon

Billy Wyatt

William McNamara

William McNamara

Teenage Billy Wyatt

Jodie Foster

Jodie Foster

Katie Chandler

Helen Hunt

Helen Hunt

Hope Wyatt

Jonathan Silverman

Jonathan Silverman

Teenage Alan Appleby

Harold Ramis

Harold Ramis

Alan Appleby

John Shea

John Shea

Sam Wyatt

Court is in session

Put Stealing Home on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.