All Roads Lead Home
All Roads Lead Home
PG | 01 January 2008 (USA)
All Roads Lead Home Trailers

The story is about a 12 year old girl who loses her mother in an automobile accident. Her father struggles with the loss of his wife and trying to raise his young daughter who believes her father is partly responsible for her mother's death. Belle's maternal grandfather is a changed man since losing his daughter in the accident. He finds it difficult to have a relationship with Belle since she is a constant reminder of her mother. It is Atticus the new puppy who will change Belle's life and the lives of those who love her

Reviews
spfeiffr

I saw this movie at my girlfriends aunt's place this past weekend, and I must say that it was an all around bad film. It had potential to be a decent to good family film about dealing with tragic loss for both father and daughter, but in stead it came across as a thinly veiled animal rights advert. Even the music was poorly handled, the sound track seemed to range from schmaltzy hallmark commercial stuff to over the top and melodramatic, not to mention that it was actually edited into the film poorly(at some points the music almost drowned out the dialogue), which pulls the viewer out of the film and probably only hurt the acting which was already on life support.The story itself seemed altogether forced, the mother dies at the beginning because she needs to reach something in the back seat, so she unbuckles her seat belt and stops watching the road. I was left feeling less bad about the mother dying and more thinking that she stupidly risked her husband and daughters life as well as other nearby motorists just to do something irrelevant. Why not have the car get plowed into by a drunk driver who runs a red light or something else equally tragic and realistic? ***SPOILER*** There were also these sub-plots about this tainted animal feed and the decision to put down this little girls favorite dog on the ranch which didn't seem to serve any purpose other than to waste time. And then there was the part where Peter Coyote orders one of his ranch hands to DROWN A LITTER OF PUPPIES, seriously that's the kind of thing they put in bad Stephen Segal movies to make the bad guy even more evil.Finally, and this is just a nitpick, but Jason London looked like he belongs on the sex offender registry with his greasy looking hair and scraggly goatee.All around I was left thinking that the biggest tragedy wasn't the little girls mothers death, but that this would stand as the last film in Peter Boyle's otherwise remarkable career. Fortunately for him, unlike Raul Julia in Street Fighter, most people won't remember this movie.

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davidpbritton

I don't typically post comments for movies, but I had to write in about this one. After seeing a decent rating (6.2 stars on IMDb is not bad), and mostly positive reviews, includes superlative statements such as: "It could be the most powerful animal-themed film I have seen.", "Defining Family Entertainment...perhaps re-defining." and "Put it on your "must-see" list.".We rented "All Roads Lead Home" for our family, and were put off by the overt over-the-top animal rights themes, low budget look of the film (simplistic camera work, minimal post-processing, poor editing, sub par acting) and *very* choppy plot. The story seemed contrived in parts to go out of its way to pull at emotional connections to animals, and in all but a very few scenes was ineffective at doing so.That is not to say that this film should not be watched, or is worthless, it just seemed like from many of the comments on IMDb that this was an Oscar-quality film. I would rather people go into this with their eyes open, so I decided to post. A number of these comments appear to be written from the perspective of a personal friend of the film crew, or someone who was invited to a private screening. Hardly a unbiased source. I don't at all mean to question the integrity of those comment authors, we are all entitled to our opinion! But I did want to balance that out with a more realistic look at this film.To realistically rate this anything higher than 5/10 stars would be quite a leap, even for someone who enjoys cheesy sappy movies. This was a cheesy sappy movie that was done poorly with a small budget.I would not recommend this movie, and feel there are many better choices on the market when it comes to family friendly movies.

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ivanahrrs

I didn't watch this movie with high expectations so I wasn't too disappointed but I feel like there was a lot of wasted potential. What could have been a touching story about reverence and respect for life, and healing after a tragedy turned into nothing more than animal rights propaganda. I found the acting from all parties to be quite unconvincing. The "troubled daughter" as it read on the back of the movie cover, was a sweet grieving little girl who made a few mistakes with the best intentions at heart. I was not raised on a ranch, but I have a hard time believing that animals are tossed aside and killed so quickly and completely without thought as in this film. For the younger audience this movie could possibly be enjoyable but let me put it this way, if I wanted to watch some kind of PETA film, I would have rented one.

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jfranklinbradley

All Roads Lead Home – Review By: J. Franklin Bradley, LBK Holdings, Inc.True "family entertainment" is far more than just something everyone in the family can watch together. If done correctly, "family entertainment" is characters and situations that can be felt and understood by all generations…nicely blended into a compelling bit of storytelling that captures the imagination of it's audiences.Just such a movie is "All Roads Lead Home", a little film with a really big payoff for its audiences. Each character adds a piece to the mosaic, from a cantankerous grandfather to his rebellious granddaughter, her father and his struggles with parenting, guilt and trying to move on with his life. Each has a differing view of their shared tragedy, yet no resolution can be found until they fight off the demons of mistrust, misunderstanding, stubbornness and resentment. Together, these characters form a wonderfully complicated mosaic, never fully revealed until the last piece is put into place.Audiences of all ages will be mesmerized by this film. For it is a journey through life's complications, with every age and viewpoint represented. There truly is something for everyone in "All Roads Lead Home". And that "something" is a heart-warming story that proves that "family entertainment" really can reach out and hold an audience from the first to the last word of the script. Its storytelling at it's best. And it shouldn't be missed.

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