Home delivers earnest messages
HOME
Featuring the voices of: Jim Parsons, Rihanna, Steve Martin, Jennifer Lopez Directed by: Tim Johnson Running time: 94 minutes
There’s a much darker film waiting to be made out of Adam Rex’s 2007 novel The True Meaning of Smekday, on which Home is nominally based.
Sure, the book is aimed at kids and generally tells the story of an alien takeover of Earth and of a Grade 7 human holdout with the unlikely name of Gratuity Tucci. But something in the story’s more sombre moments put me in mind of Kurt Vonnegut’s war satire Slaughterhouse- Five.
So it goes. Home, featuring amusingly squashy indigo aliens that speak like an Elizabethan Jar Jar Binks, comes by its G rating honestly.
The opening features the shortest hostile action since the AngloZanzibar conflict of 1896 ( 45 minutes). An alien race called the Boov lays claim to Earth, defaces the Statue of Liberty ( a requirement of all invaders of Terra) and packs all the pesky humans off to Australia. Hey, it worked once.
In the general merriment that follows, a Boov named Oh ( voiced by The Big Bang Theory’s Jim Parsons) accidentally invites his race’s mortal enemy, the Gorg, to a housewarming party. If the invitation reaches its unintended recipients, Earth will be invaded all over again, with even more dire consequences.
As Oh is avoiding capture by his fellows for this intergalactic faux pas, he falls in with Ms. Tucci, voiced by Rihanna, who also adds to the soundtrack mix. Gratuity, who prefers to go by Tip, moves from initial mistrust to wary acceptance and even friendship.
The Boov excel at cowardice, having chosen Earth as the latest in a long line of places to hide from the Gorg.
So while Oh tries to figure out how to correct his “hilarious mistake” — his words — and gets chased by minions of Captain Smek ( Steve Martin, perfect in this small but crucial vocal role), Tip tries to track down her mom, from whom she was separated during the invasion.
Home feels like less than it could have been. The underlying themes of the importance of family, the acceptance of strangers, the nobility of sacrifice, owning up to your mistakes and learning how to share — don’t steal other people’s planets — are painted in broad, comfortable strokes that neither elevate nor sink the material.