Home Like a Shadow (AKA "The Spirit Upwelling")
College girl accompanies her new boyfriend to his decaying San Joaquin Valley home town for his mother's birthday and is pulled into family conflicts and lost dreams dating back to the Civil War.
Here’s a link to a recently published online version: https://www.piltdownreview.com/2018/10/home-like-a-shadow.html
Meghan is a cynical, worldly, disillusioned college girl who thinks she has insulated herself against almost any experience. But when her new boyfriend, Cliff, unexpectedly invites her to his mother's birthday dinner in his tiny San Joaquin Valley hometown of "Alton" California, she braces herself.
"I am not particularly worried about meeting his family, either. I know by now that I am not the type of girl parents approve of. “Slinky,” one mom had sniffed, as if that were something bad.
When they finally arrive, Meghan realizes that Alton is a poor California town, straight out of The Grapes of Wrath.
"Piles of sunbleached lumber and crusted paint cans lie about in patchy, weedy yards, as if people had once hoped to renew their lives, but gave up."
Suddenly, I ache for Cliff. Beneath his lanky, cynical pose lies this sad origin."
“C’mon in.” But Cliff opens the door only enough for him to poke his head through and glance around. After a moment he throws it wide and pulls me after him."
Meghan meets Cliff's mother Lili, and his Auntie Verna, both of them sipping bourbon from teacups and already half in the bag. Of Lili, she says:
"Her face is radiantly beautiful, but the fragile skin has been no match for the Central Valley sun. Something about her makes you want to console her."
Auntie Verna, Lili's sister, gives Meghan the once-over:
"I get a whiff of hard liquor, tobacco and perfume. Her sharp blue eyes scan me so quickly that I can almost feel the wind of their passing.
When Cliff's father emerges, Meghan sees yet another truth:
A stubby, graying man in a blue striped seersucker bathrobe hanging half open to reveal a hairy, concave chest above an ample belly. His eyebrows are thick black bolts drawn together by his scowl. His beard is about three days old."
Meghan is now pulled into the family's life. Against her will, she begins to lose the hard shell she has grown around herself.
When the father leaves for a bout of gambling, and Cliff takes off after him, Meghan realizes that it is going to be a long, long night, and that she is going to wake up the next morning changed forever.
Chris Pine
Kim Basinger
The Brothers McMullen
The Last Picture Show
ScriptLinks
Post Your Script Here!HOME MOVIES
Circa 1972, tiny Gemini Beach just north of Daytona.
THE HEALING
Twin siblings diverge violently when one becomes a celebrated, Christ-like preacher and the other courts death through reckless desire—until their bond is tested by miracles, scandal, and the ultimate act of faith.
WIZ KID
An 11-year-old farm boy with a genius-level IQ leaves his wheelchair-bound mother and abusive home to attend a Big Ten university—where he finds friendship, first love, and an unlikely place on the football field, proving that greatness comes in all sizes.
THE GLAMOROUS LIFE
: A fading supermodel fleeing an abusive rock-star boyfriend hides out at a Florida beach house with two mismatched brothers who mistake her for a prostitute—an error that gives all three an unexpected crash course in love, reinvention, and growing up.
A CHRISTMAS TALE OF NOT SO LONG AGO
In this family drama, Christmases of long ago, ones of togetherness, family entertainments, and memorable stories, as told by Grandpa Lynn, now living in his daughter, Rhiannon Nolan's, spare room, now contrast with those of the Nolan family with its packaged television and sports, relatives' distancing, and multitude of electronic distractions.
UNCLE FRANCO'S BIRTHDAY SUIT
Paolo’s relatives, including his zany Uncle Franco, are determined to reunite their nephew with his teenage love, Magdalena.
THE QUISLING
A young lawyer defends a wanted terrorist from international extradition.
ELECTRIC
After a freak electrical accident gives a tough-as-nails lineman the power to spark instant love between anyone she touches, she becomes a media sensation — except the one man she wants is immune, forcing her to discover what her power really does before it stops her heart for good.
The Minotaur
THE FIND OF THE CENTURY BECOMES THE NIGHTMARE OF THE CENTURY.
Undue Influence
An unscrupulous and money hungry debt collector is forced to make hard choices when she becomes the target of a wrongful death law suit.
