edwagreen I just saw this film on Lifetime and it was titled "Music for My Mother." No matter what the title, this is a very impressive movie detailing a sensitive guy who loves music and is masterful at creating it.A very good film detailing human relations among people. When a young lady can't get permission from her college professor father to go to Florida with her boyfriend, she resorts to chicanery to win her father over. She purposely goes out with a "lowlife" so that her father will give in and be happy that she is back with her regular guy. Of course, the idea is that the "lowlife" turns out to be our musical genius who soon impresses her dad with his uncanny ability to write beautiful music.This is also a story of sadness as the young man's mother is terminally ill with cancer. Julie Hagerty is impressive in the latter role.While the ending is sad, you will be uplifted by the music and that life goes on. A wonderful tribute to life even with its tribulations.

jmn100 The charming "Pope Dreams" was one my favorites at last week's Atlanta Film Festival. I set aside my cynicism and my adult aversion to being emotionally manipulated by a plot-by-the-numbers script when I realized that this was going to be a straight-up coming-of-age movie. Besides, it's the wonderful acting that makes "Pope Dreams" stand out in a film festival setting, which tends to show more ironically wised-up characters. Although, with a title like "Pope Dreams", I figured this film would be ironic. Instead, this was a really generous-spirited adolescent movie about social class and love and family and music.I did find the title a bit off the beam,however, since,in this cut, anyway, the Papal pilgrimage subplot is quite incidental to the story. One of the film's best bits of dialog is a musically misunderstood reference to "Early Sabbath". I thought - "that's makes a great title!" - to myself as I was watching....

george.schmidt POPE DREAMS (2006) *** Phillip Aden, Marne Patterson, Stephen Tobolowsky, Julie Haggerty, David Shatraw, Noel Fisher, Naleah Dey. (Dir: P. Patrick Hogan)The teenager in love but facing life lessons has been around for decades and best embodied during the 1980s with John Hughes and John Cusack, director and actor who best caught the voice of a generation - hell, my generation - about the nice-funny-guy who never really got the girl who wants the girl but along the way grows up into the mature adult everyone can already see. Recently Zach Braff's out-of-nowhere comedy/drama "Garden State" became "The Graduate" for Generation X, Y & Z and now comes an indie dramedy with a cast of virtually unknowns but manages to be winning, funny and surprisingly poignantly moving.Newcomer Phillip Aden stars as the Cascadian character Andy Venable, a decent kid who loves music and is the drummer of his band who are quite frankly beneath his talents. When he's not busy working with his father Carl (veteran character actor Stephen Tobolowsky, best known as Needlenose Ned of "Groundhog Day" and Sammy Jankis, the template for Guy Pearce's anti-hero in "Memento") at his audio/video retail outlet, he is dreaming of something better from his blah-sville existence in sun-dappled LA. Just when he can't figure out his life enters a beautiful blonde named Brady Rossman (hottie Marne Patterson), a Stanford sophomore whose boyfriend in San Diego but attempting to see her for a trip to Key West much to the chagrin of her father, Joel (David Shatraw), a musical composer, who denies her wishes. Determined to get her way and with the aid of her best friend, Juanita (Naleah Dey) the two girls hatch a plan: have Brady find some loser to date to infuriate her father just for spite and then dump him when he caves in for the vacation getaway.The girls find their patsy in the unknowing form of Andy when they see his band perform at the local bar and after she introduces herself and asks him out, Andy is smitten. Andy's got other problems too. His beloved mother, Kristina (Julie Hagerty, giving a career high performance) has a rare form of cancer and a short-time longevity that Andy cannot deal with despite the insistence by his father and his sisters to help them help her in her hour of need. It is too much for Andy who is also attempting to raise money so he can take Kristina to the Vatican for a personal visit arrangement to meet The Pope. Written and directed by P. Patrick Hogan (who makes a fine directorial debut here), a veteran sound editor, has a good eye and ear for dialogue in his witty, touching and earnestly adult screenplay capturing the voice of adolescent angst and the mature subject matter of death with an able hand. I can't recall a film that has accurately depicted the suffering of cancer victims with such delicacy and decency largely thanks to the impressive acting by Hagerty in her smallish yet important role. All around the acting is on par with the production in itself. Vaden - who resembles a cross between Cusack, Matthew Broderick and Bud Cort in his "Harold and Maude" hey-day - is remarkable and adept with the sly comedy and sudden drama as well as Patterson who makes her Brady a likable babe who clearly has feelings for Andy and cannot understand how her initial plan has instead given her a new relationship with the decent-hearted would-be beau; she shines in several scenes where you can see her character despising her initial plotting. Also noteworthy is Noel Fisher's soccer-obsessed Pete "Pelando" Frazier, the goofy best bud of Andy who also is surprising in a few scenes of drama where he isn't who he appears to be. Fisher recalls the younger Anthony Michael Hall with a touch of David Spade's curdled wit.I was pleasantly surprised with this film and enjoyed it thoroughly and it was nice to see veterans like Tobolowsky (in arguably his best work ever) and Haggerty (ditto) make it effortless with newbies Vaden and Patterson.

screeningroom Saw this film at the USA Film Festival in Dallas. It's a very well developed script, with believable characters, behaving in natural ways. In other words, it's an interesting story that's easy and enjoyable to watch. What more could one ask for in a world filled with mediocre writing, poorly directed and acted? The film has a terrific cast of newcomers and veterans, and is technically well made. The title can be a little misleading. It only refers to the fact the the son wants to send his ailing mom on a trip to Italy to see The Pope in-person. This is by no means a "religious" film. It's currently playing the festival circuit.I highly recommend it. Go see it, if it's showing near you...