{"id":440725,"date":"2026-01-31T11:19:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T11:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/440725\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T11:19:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T11:19:08","slug":"liz-sargents-portrait-of-a-family-in-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/440725\/","title":{"rendered":"Liz Sargent’s Portrait of a Family in Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe family drama \u201cTake Me Home<\/a>\u201d is a not an easy watch and (arguably harder than it needs to be). Yet, how could a film that takes such an intimate look at the fraying healthcare net through the story of a woman with a cognitive disability and her declining parents be otherwise? And yet, writer-director Liz Sargent<\/a>\u2019s debut feature \u2014 which premiered in the U.S. Dramatic competition at the Sundance Film Festival<\/a> and won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award \u2014 is suffused with love: the director\u2019s love for her own sibling, who stars in the film, but also the tenacious and so often under-appreciated love of caregiving.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat the trio\u2019s affection often expresses itself in frustrated shouts, sighed exasperation or muted defeat, has become part of the bargain for 38-year-old Anna, who takes care of and is cared for by her parents (Victor Slezak as Dad and Marceline Hugot as Mom).<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen we enter their cramped Florida home, this wee mutual aid society of three is in a brewing crisis. Acknowledging this on the parents\u2019 part would signal a defeat. And, though able to navigate a great deal of the daily routine, Anna has gaps that will widen as her parents\u2019 needs become more demanding.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat are we doing today, Mom?\u201d Anna asks as her mother sits in the bathtub on a stool shampooing her daughter\u2019s hair. \u201cWe\u2019re doing it,\u201d she replies. She then leans on Anna in an unsteady effort to get over the bathtub rim. Yes, their lives have become this circumscribed. Later, a trip to the grocery store finds Dad staring at shelves of plastic-wrapped bread loaves. While this moment might offer a commentary on the weird plenty of the marketplace, Anna senses her father is lost an increasing haze and intervenes.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen in doubt, Anna\u2019s likely to speed-dial her sister, Emily. Mom did the same thing and it\u2019s clear that there\u2019s been hurt feelings. As the sister who relocated to Brooklyn two years earlier, Ali Ahn carries the burden of being the one who escaped. We can hear in her voice, or see on a video call, that she worries about being dragged back in.<\/p>\n

\n\tA tragedy forces her home, where the depth of familial decline startles and scares her. The looming challenges mute the grief. There\u2019s so much to be done: financials, Social Security, disability and Medicaid benefits. Welcome to an increasingly common situation in which health concerns are swamped by economics. Call it \u201changing on by a thread,\u201d where any unexpected \u2014 or expected but unaffordable \u2014 setback will snip that thread.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s a lot, and Emily\u2019s got a job back in New York that she not only will need to return to but wants to return to.<\/p>\n

\n\tEarly in \u201cTake Me Home,\u201d we learn that when they were children, Emily adored Anna. Those days aren\u2019t gone but they\u2019ve changed as one has gone into the world and the other has stayed at home. Anna, who lives in the now in many ways, doesn\u2019t appear to feel resentment about this; Emily clearly has tinges of guilt. \u201cWhy did you adopt someone with a disability?\u201d she asks her father.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen Anna heads over to the neighbor\u2019s home, we learn that she hankers for social interaction. The viewer might wonder if the scene of Anna interacting with neighbor James (Shane Harper) and his drinking buddies, who are hanging out on lawn chairs in the drive, elicits more anxiety for her safety than the director intended. Or is this another example of how Anna\u2019s capable and how her parents\u2019 decisions have perhaps made her less equipped and more vulnerable in the world?<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen Emily tells their father that they need to seek alternative living situations for him and Anna, he balks. On his own, he\u2019ll learn just how out of reach something safe and suitable might be. Anna and Emily are the Korean adoptees of white parents. So are the director and her sister, but this is not an autobiography. \u201cTake Me Home\u201d is instead a deeply felt examination of the challenges so many face when familial love is swamped by economic reality. The director puts a lot on her characters\u2019 shoulders to illustrate how unsupported and isolated illness and disability can be. She also tries to imagine an out. Note to us all: It\u2019s not as sunny as it seems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The family drama \u201cTake Me Home\u201d is a not an easy watch and (arguably harder than it needs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,207749,206,98265,207750],"class_list":["post-440725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-liz-sargent","tag-movies","tag-sundance-film-festival","tag-take-me-home"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}