By Dennis Tavernetti
“Take Me Home” from The Indie Series presented by Emerging Pictures in HD at USCB Center For the Arts on Wednesday, April 25, at 7 p.m.
Synopsis:  After getting turned down for a job, Thom finds his landlord throwing all of his belongings into the hallway. With no job prospects and no place to sleep, he turns to driving his illegal taxicab around the streets of New York. Fortunately for him, Claire Barrow isn’t having a good day, either. Her husband is flirting with his secretary and her estranged father has suffered a heart attack in California. In a frenzy, she hails what she assumes to be a licensed cab. What she gets instead ... is Thom. With her life in ruins, Claire decides to pay Thom to drive her out to California and he reluctantly agrees. The path across America takes more than the usual detours and that forces them to choose between the lives they’ve left behind, and the possibilities glimpsed along their journey.
Ratings &amp; Reviews:  This Indie film is so new that the two leading film web sites are only noting partial ratings on very small sample sizes. IMDb ratings are trending above 5.0 and Rotten Tomatoes has no critics’ ratings as yet, but an audience of 67. Satisfactory marks. Fringe critics and bloggers:  Jared Mobarak: “A breath of fresh air ... a little gem of a movie”. Chicago International Film Review: “... romantic comedy gold mine ... it’s a nice film”. IMDb audience reviewers loved it.
Previewer Comments: This is a true Indie film that to date has mostly been shown at movie festivals around the country. It is low budget, but has experienced lead actors who are actually husband of wife in real life, so they get the chemistry right, even if they are mostly at odds. The story line of taking a cab to California from NYC is improbable, both for the driver and the passenger, but that is the point.  Life’s issues sometimes lead us to act in atypical ways as we try to escape our problems and concerns. What is remarkable about this film is the sense of caring between the two, even in the face of their bickering and differences. In this serious, but romantic comedy, being stuck in a cab on a cross country road trip is a nice excursion from the doom and gloom of a lot of other Indie films.  In the end it offers up a potential solution: change with hope.
Rated:  PG-13 for sexual references.
Tickets for adults are $7, seniors $6, students $5. Call USCB Center for the Arts box office at 843-521-4145 or purchase tickets day of performance. The box office opens one hour before show time.
Dennis Tavernetti is a resident of St. Helena Island who retired to the Lowcountry having a lifelong interest in the arts. He encouraged USCB‘s Center for the Arts to investigate the possibility of bringing Indie, World and Documentary HD films to Beaufort.