Digging to China
Encyclopedia
Digging to China is a 1998 American
drama film
that marked the directorial debut of actor Timothy Hutton
and the screen debut of Evan Rachel Wood
. The screenplay
by Karen Janszen focuses on the friendship forged between a precocious pre-teenaged girl with a vivid imagination and a mentally challenged adult male.
with cabins shaped like teepees her mother received as part of her divorce settlement. Harriet has a strong desire to escape her dull existence by means of any one of a number of creative ways - a magic carpet
she tries to fly off the roof, on board a flying saucer
she anxiously awaits in the schoolyard, through a tunnel she has been digging to China
, or by attaching helium
-filled balloon
s to a lawn chair. Mrs. Frankovitz is a bitter alcoholic
with a propensity for driving on the wrong side of the road, while promiscuous Gwen entertains a series of men in vacant rooms. Terminally ill Leah Schroth is en route to an institution where she plans to admit her son Ricky when their car breaks down near the motel, and the two stay there while waiting for the vehicle to be repaired. Mrs. Frankovitz is killed in an automobile accident, and Harriet discovers Gwen is her biological mother. The distressed girl and her new friend run away and set up house in an abandoned caboose
concealed beneath dense foliage in the woods. When Ricky becomes ill, Harriet is forced to seek medical assistance for him. Once he recovers, his mother sets off with him to complete their interrupted journey, leaving Gwen and Harriet to learn to interact in their new roles of mother and daughter.
.
The soundtrack includes "One Big Love" by Patty Griffin
, "Last Train to Clarksville" by The Monkees
, "Mas Que Nada" by Sérgio Mendez and Brazil '66
, "Iko Iko" by The Dixie Cups
, "Soul Sauce" by Cal Tjader
, "Crimson and Clover" by Tommy James and the Shondells, "El Lobo" by Herb Alpert
, "Samba Pa Ti" by Carlos Santana
, and "Magic Carpet Ride" by Steppenwolf
.
The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival
in January 1998.
Peter Stack of the San Francisco Chronicle
called it a "cloying, superficial story [that] ends up forced and predictable ... Bacon's portrayal of Ricky, who is disabled by a nerve disease that contorts his body and face, ranges from adequate to almost touching. But it's the desperate, contrived storytelling that makes the film a chore to watch ... [its] saving grace is that it's lush and visually attractive."
In the San Francisco Examiner, Walter Addiego described it as "an uneasy mixture of afterschool special and art-house project" and "well-intentioned but ultimately sentimental" and added, "It nonetheless offers some good performances and nice, low-key observations about the predicament of outsiders ... Considering the material, Hutton should be commended. There's just enough going on in Digging to China to suggest real directorial talent, and I hope he can build on this foundation."
, and the film won the Children's Jury Award at the Chicago International Children's Film Festival
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
that marked the directorial debut of actor Timothy Hutton
Timothy Hutton
Timothy Tarquin Hutton is an American actor. He is the youngest actor to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, which he won at the age of 20 for his performance as Conrad Jarrett in Ordinary People . He currently stars as Nathan "Nate" Ford on the TNT series Leverage.-Early life:Timothy...
and the screen debut of Evan Rachel Wood
Evan Rachel Wood
Evan Rachel Wood is an American actress and singer. She began her acting career in the late 1990s, appearing in several television series, including American Gothic and Once and Again...
. The screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
by Karen Janszen focuses on the friendship forged between a precocious pre-teenaged girl with a vivid imagination and a mentally challenged adult male.
Plot synopsis
Set in the mid-1960s, the story centers on ten-year-old Harriet Frankovitz, a lonely outcast who lives with her mother and older sister Gwen in the dilapidated motelMotel
A motor hotel, or motel for short, is a hotel designed for motorists, and usually has a parking area for motor vehicles...
with cabins shaped like teepees her mother received as part of her divorce settlement. Harriet has a strong desire to escape her dull existence by means of any one of a number of creative ways - a magic carpet
Magic carpet
A magic carpet, also called a flying carpet, is a legendary carpet that can be used to transport persons who are on it instantaneously or quickly to their destination.-In literature:...
she tries to fly off the roof, on board a flying saucer
Flying saucer
A flying saucer is a type of unidentified flying object sometimes believed to be of alien origin with a disc or saucer-shaped body, usually described as silver or metallic, occasionally reported as covered with running lights or surrounded with a glowing light, hovering or moving rapidly either...
she anxiously awaits in the schoolyard, through a tunnel she has been digging to China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, or by attaching helium
Helium
Helium is the chemical element with atomic number 2 and an atomic weight of 4.002602, which is represented by the symbol He. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas that heads the noble gas group in the periodic table...
-filled balloon
Balloon
A balloon is an inflatable flexible bag filled with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen, or air. Modern balloons can be made from materials such as rubber, latex, polychloroprene, or a nylon fabric, while some early balloons were made of dried animal bladders, such as the pig...
s to a lawn chair. Mrs. Frankovitz is a bitter alcoholic
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
with a propensity for driving on the wrong side of the road, while promiscuous Gwen entertains a series of men in vacant rooms. Terminally ill Leah Schroth is en route to an institution where she plans to admit her son Ricky when their car breaks down near the motel, and the two stay there while waiting for the vehicle to be repaired. Mrs. Frankovitz is killed in an automobile accident, and Harriet discovers Gwen is her biological mother. The distressed girl and her new friend run away and set up house in an abandoned caboose
Caboose
A caboose is a manned North American rail transport vehicle coupled at the end of a freight train. Although cabooses were once used on nearly every freight train, their use has declined and they are seldom seen on trains, except on locals and smaller railroads.-Function:The caboose provided the...
concealed beneath dense foliage in the woods. When Ricky becomes ill, Harriet is forced to seek medical assistance for him. Once he recovers, his mother sets off with him to complete their interrupted journey, leaving Gwen and Harriet to learn to interact in their new roles of mother and daughter.
Production notes
The film was shot in Cherokee, North CarolinaCherokee, North Carolina
Cherokee is a town in Swain County, North Carolina, USA, within the Qualla Boundary land trust. It is located in the Oconaluftee River Valley, near the intersection of U.S. Route 19 and U.S...
.
The soundtrack includes "One Big Love" by Patty Griffin
Patty Griffin
Patty Griffin, born Patricia Jean Griffin, March 16, 1964, is an American Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter and musician. She is especially known for her down-home crafting of songs and her connection to musicians including Emmylou Harris, Ellis Paul, and the Dixie Chicks, who have played with...
, "Last Train to Clarksville" by The Monkees
The Monkees
The Monkees are an American pop rock group. Assembled in Los Angeles in 1966 by Robert "Bob" Rafelson and Bert Schneider for the American television series The Monkees, which aired from 1966 to 1968, the musical acting quartet was composed of Americans Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork,...
, "Mas Que Nada" by Sérgio Mendez and Brazil '66
Sergio Mendes
Sérgio Santos Mendes is a Brazilian musician. He has released over thirty-five albums, and plays bossa nova heavily crossed with jazz and funk....
, "Iko Iko" by The Dixie Cups
The Dixie Cups
The Dixie Cups are an American pop music girl group of the 1960s. They are best known for their 1964 million selling disc, "Chapel of Love".-Career:...
, "Soul Sauce" by Cal Tjader
Cal Tjader
Callen Radcliffe Tjader, Jr. a.k.a. Cal Tjader was a Latin jazz musician, though he also explored various other jazz idioms. Unlike other American jazz musicians who experimented with the music from Cuba, the Caribbean, and Latin America, he never abandoned it, performing it until his...
, "Crimson and Clover" by Tommy James and the Shondells, "El Lobo" by Herb Alpert
Herb Alpert
Herbert "Herb" Alpert is an American musician most associated with the group variously known as Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass, or TJB. He is also a recording industry executive — he is the "A" of A&M Records...
, "Samba Pa Ti" by Carlos Santana
Carlos Santana
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion...
, and "Magic Carpet Ride" by Steppenwolf
Steppenwolf (band)
Steppenwolf are a Canadian-American rock group that was prominent in the late 1960s. The group was formed in 1967 in Los Angeles by vocalist John Kay, guitarist Michael Monarch, bassist Rushton Moreve, keyboardist Goldy McJohn and drummer Jerry Edmonton after the dissolution of Toronto group The...
.
The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
in January 1998.
Principal cast
- Evan Rachel WoodEvan Rachel WoodEvan Rachel Wood is an American actress and singer. She began her acting career in the late 1990s, appearing in several television series, including American Gothic and Once and Again...
as Harriet Frankovitz - Kevin BaconKevin BaconKevin Norwood Bacon is an American film and theater actor whose notable roles include Animal House, Diner, Footloose, Flatliners, Wild Things, A Few Good Men, JFK, Apollo 13, Mystic River, The Woodsman, Trapped, Friday the 13th, Hollow Man, Tremors, Death Sentence, Frost/Nixon, Crazy, Stupid, Love....
as Ricky Schroth - Mary Stuart MastersonMary Stuart MastersonMary Stuart Masterson is an American film, stage and television actress and director.-Early life:Masterson was born in New York City to writer/director Peter Masterson and actress Carlin Glynn. She has two siblings: Peter Masterson Jr., and Alexandra Masterson, who are both involved in the...
as Gwen Frankovitz - Marian SeldesMarian SeldesMarian Hall Seldes is an American stage, film, radio, and television actress whose career has spanned six decades and who was elected to the American Theatre Hall of Fame.-Life and career:...
as Leah Schroth - Cathy MoriartyCathy Moriarty-Career:Her first film credit was Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull in 1980, as Vikki LaMotta, the wife of Robert De Niro's lead character. Her performance earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She also appeared opposite Andrew Dice Clay in the short-lived CBS...
as Mrs. Frankovitz
Critical reception
In his review in the New York Times, Stephen Holden said the film "doesn't grab at the heartstrings and strum an aggressively mawkish ballad. In fact, it could do with a bit more heart. Part of the problem is Ms. Wood's Harriet. The young actress is radiantly photogenic, but her performance is muted and monochromatic ... Without an incandescent performance at its center, Digging to China follows the same path as Harriet's balloon escape. It gets stuck in the trees."Peter Stack of the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
called it a "cloying, superficial story [that] ends up forced and predictable ... Bacon's portrayal of Ricky, who is disabled by a nerve disease that contorts his body and face, ranges from adequate to almost touching. But it's the desperate, contrived storytelling that makes the film a chore to watch ... [its] saving grace is that it's lush and visually attractive."
In the San Francisco Examiner, Walter Addiego described it as "an uneasy mixture of afterschool special and art-house project" and "well-intentioned but ultimately sentimental" and added, "It nonetheless offers some good performances and nice, low-key observations about the predicament of outsiders ... Considering the material, Hutton should be commended. There's just enough going on in Digging to China to suggest real directorial talent, and I hope he can build on this foundation."
Awards and nominations
Kevin Bacon was named Best Actor at the Giffoni Film FestivalGiffoni Film Festival
The Giffoni International Film Festival is the largest children’s film festival in Europe, and possibly the World. It takes place in the little Italian town of Giffoni Valle Piana in Southern Italy, close to Salerno. Over 2,000 children attend the festival from 39 countries around the world...
, and the film won the Children's Jury Award at the Chicago International Children's Film Festival
Chicago International Children's Film Festival
Founded in 1975, Facets Multi-Media, located at 1517 W. Fullerton Avenue, Chicago, 60614 Facets Multi-Media is the largest conservator dedicated to the exhibition, distribution & education of foreign, independent & classic cinema...
.