Bigger Than the Sky (2005)

this movie was delightful, insightful, and touched my heart in special places. the quirkiness of the film was funny...like when peter's sister is seen with take out Chinese food at peter's house eating a whole pickle in between bites of the Chinese food, when peter walk's out the door and crosses himself upside-down, the theater being the exterior of a church, and many more little sightings of the sublime. one of the messages in this film was a yearning for the honesty of spirit, to be able to reveal your true self without pretensions as portrayed by marcus thomas' character peter and amy smarts character grace and really all the character's except for j.w. crawford's character as kirk...there has to be at least one protagonist. it was so cool to see patty duke play as twins again and she is such a great actress and person. whoever did the casting for this movie did a superb job...really. all the actors genuinely gave earnest and heartwarming performances. it is just amazing to me that such an all star cast such as this one would do a movie they most likely felt was not going to reach a large audience. the final scene was touching and quirky at the same time. there were many subliminal references to Christ and getting up to speed for our parts in a evolution of consciousness on this planet. i will probably have to come back and add more as i wish the people who produce, direct, crew, act on such good films to get the recognition they deserve and promote this movie so that it could somehow reach a greater audience.

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.

I saw this film today with my friend, and although neither of us have any experience with community theatre (little of that here in NYC), we found this film to be quite charming and enjoyable. Yeah, sure, it could have used a little editing, but the actors are engaging, the dialog is humorous, and the relationships of the characters, though sometimes a little clichéd, have an underlying authenticity. Community theatre is portrayed not as the graveyard of failed actors, but as a community where talent and friendships are nurtured without regard for money and advancement. And, unlike the first reviewer, I thought the acting was quite good. My friend and I especially enjoyed the twin parts played by Patty Duke, since we're both old enough to remember her dual role on her TV show. See this movie if you're tired of blockbuster, sequels, and star vehicles.