Bigger Than the Sky aired on Reel13 tonight in New York City. If we want to continue to enjoy films of this quality in the future, we should continue to support public broadcasting. I fear that in the days ahead, PBS will suffer from lack of funding as many Americans reduce their contributions to the arts. If we're all going to stay home and try to save money, we should consider what we'll be watching if PBS isn't allowed to continue providing high quality content. Having said that, I was wondering where the last line of the film came from? Something about a place of my own? Additionally, the speech that included the title Bigger Than the Sky, where's that from? Obviously I'm not an actor. I just like good movies.

I am almost the nerd guy in his movie. Even though I am a scientist, while in graduate school in the 1960s virtually fell into a student stage production, all 28 performances that ran for 4 weeks. Later, as a young parent, I watched my children in summer community theater productions of such musicals as Wizard of Oz and Sound of Music, while I played trumpet with the stage band in the pit. Community theater in many ways changed my life, opened up a new way of looking at the world. It does that to you.Marcus Thomas, from Belgium, plays Peter Rooker, living and working in Portland, Oregon. By appearances a very boring life. He is a type of 'mister cellophane'. But he notices a poster on his way to work, tryouts for "Cyrano". On a whim he goes, with absolutely no concept of what he was doing (I remember my own such first tryout experience!). He predictably does very poorly, he knows it, everyone else there knows it, but the director saw something, and unreasonably casts him as Cyrano! This sets the stage for all the developments that follow. Any person with a community theater interest surely will enjoy this movie, as will many others who don't share that interest.Others include John Corbett as Michael Degan, experienced actor who gets the part of Christian. Amy Smart as Grace Hargrove, who gets the part of Roxanne. Sean Astin who plays demanding actor Ken Zorbell. And his real life mother Patty Duke who plays dual role of twins, Mrs. Keene and Earlene.SPOILERS FOLLOW. Peter continues to be bad, even though everyone works with him. He just cannot get "into" the role. As opening night nears, reluctantly the director asks Zorbell to be Cyrano, it is the key role in the play. But, in a humorous turn of events Zorbell, having been very difficult, is locked out, Peter makes a last minute entrance as Cyrano, and in full costume transforms himself, he does a great job, and gets many cheers at the curtain call. As the DVD container says, "There are moments in your life that are bigger than you think." Perhaps bigger than the sky.

Forget King Kong and Crash. This movie is last year's real treasure.I bought the DVD because I've become a big John Corbett fan after watching Sex in the City reruns. He raises the level of everything he's in and I've never seen him in anything really bad. Okay, I did see him in "Elvis Has Left the Building," but his performance and Kim Bassinger's almost saved that movie. I watched "Bigger than the Sky" and was totally moved to tears and laughter. I watched it again the next night with my wife and 11 year old daughter and we were all moved. It is a really beautiful film that works on the level of the heart. John Corbett, as I expected was absolutely charming as a talented and outrageous actor. I didn't expect everyone else in the cast to be as good, but everyone was. Marcus Thomas had a difficult lead role to play as a clueless guy who finds himself over his head in community theater. He was absolutely convincing, an academy award caliber performance. I don't remember ever seeing Amy Smart, but she gave as good a performance as Claire Danes did in "Shakespeare in Love." I have to check out everything she's done and will do from now on. Sean Astin was delightful as always. The actor and actress who played Edwina and Kippie were also terrific. For those who remember the Patty Duke Show, this movie was like a super-episode of that show. Seeing Patty Duke playing twins again in this movie brought me back to my youth of 40 years ago. Truth be told I had a terrific crush on her and watching that show was one of the highlights of my week when I was 12 years old. The show had this incredibly positive liberal and liberating message. It was totally rock and rock and culturally subversive. Only the Dobie Gillis show (which also starred the wonderful William Shallert) was similar. It gave me hope for a positive world of peace, kindness, fair play, love and understanding. This movie brought back those feelings of hope for the future of the human race, something we can all use in these neo-fascist times. I think anybody who has a good heart will love this movie, as well as anybody who has been connected with the theater in any way. Like "Stage Beauty" and "Being Julia" it is a hymn to the world of the theater.

A film worthy of your time and patience if for no other reason than the understated, almost sleepy performance of Marcus Thomas who seems perfectly lost amid a band of eccentrics from a community theater troupe, which may be a borderline oxymoron.Thomas, a Belgium-born actor, brings a different presence to the screen. He doesn't try to keep up with John Corbett (who is still quite tall) or Amy Smart (who is still incredibly cute).Patty Duke was a pleasant surprise in a dual role-something she did many years ago on the Patty Duke Show.Duke's real life son, Sean Astin, turns in a very credible performance though he's not playing a very likable character.These types of films are rare gems that deserve support whether you really like them or just find them okay. They need support because they very original in scope-a breath of fresh air from the dearth of packaged mainstream muck.Did I really like this film? Not really though it wasn't bad. As for films set against the backdrop of community theater, Waiting For Guffman remains the best with State and Main (which was also set against the backdrop of a film crew on location.) a distant second-because of David Mamet's great talent.Bigger Than The Sky is sort of out on it's own. There is far worse fare out there to get stuck in.