Digging to China

Timothy Hutton makes his feature directing debut with Digging to China, a coming-of-age drama which plays like the Hallmark Hall of Fame version of Sling Blade. Set for no really good reason in the early 1970s, it tells the story of 10-year-old Harriet (Evan Rachel Wood in a pleasantly low-key bit of child acting), a precocious child living with her alcoholic mother (Cathy Moriarty) and promiscuous older sister (Mary Stuart Masterson) at the roadside motel they own and operate. There Harriet befriends Ricky (Kevin Bacon), a mentally retarded man staying at the motel with his mother while their car is repaired. The story does a nice job of capturing the growing friendship between its two lonely leads, and does nearly as effective a job with the strange relationship between Harriet and her sister. It all might have worked much better if Bacon's version of mental handicap didn't look so much like an imitation of Pee-Wee Herman. He gets a few effective moments, both humorous and serious, but you never believe for a moment that you're watching anything but an actor pretending to be mentally retarded, and doing a fairly twitchy job of it. Optional. (S. Renshaw)