Making the transition into the next natural stage in life can be a daunting experience for many people, no matter how well prepared they are to further expand their knowledge, skills and emotions. But the new war drama, ‘Ithaca,’ offers captivating insight into not only the protagonist’s coming-of-age story, but also an acclaimed actress’ natural transition into working behind the camera. The movie marks the feature film directorial debut of Meg Ryan, who powerfully brought to the screen the story of a teenage boy who’s learning what it truly means to care for his family.
The second movie adaptation of William Saroyan’s 1943 novel, ‘The Human Comedy,’ was penned by screenwriter Erik Jendresen. Momentum Pictures will distribute ‘Ithaca’ tomorrow in theaters and On Demand.
‘Ithaca’ follows fourteen-year-old Homer Macauley (Alex Neustaedter) as he seeks the true meaning of his life and purpose in urban America when his older brother, Marcus (Jack Quaid), leaves to fight in the Second World War. Since their father (Tom Hanks) recently passed away, and Marcus is contributing to the war effort, Homer takes on a job as a bicycle telegraph messenger. The teenager is eager to take responsibility and provide for his widowed mother (Ryan), his older sister, Bess (Christine Nelson), and his younger brother, Ulysses (Spencer Howell).
Upon starting his job, Homer happily delivers messages of love and hope to his fellow citizens of the film’s title city. However, he must also learn how to contend with delivering telegrams that detail pain and death to his neighbors. In addition to receiving guidance from his mother, Homer is also offered advice from his co-workers in the telegram office, Willie Grogan (Sam Shepard) and Tom Spangler (Hamish Linklater). The encouragement offers the teenager some comfort in learning how to contend with maturing quickly during a devastating time in not only his family’s life, but overall American society.
Ryan generously took the time recently to talk about making her feature film directorial debut on ‘Ithaca’ during an exclusive phone interview. Among other things, the actress and filmmaker discussed that since the drama offers a social commentary on life’s complicated issues, including the abruptness of change and the sting of death, it’s really an adult movie about a certain type of coming-of-age. She also mentioned that she embraced working with both the up-and-coming and established performers in the movie, especially when they collaborated on building the characters’ arcs and motivations during pre-production.
The director began the conversation by revealing the process of making ‘Ithaca’ began about eight years ago. One of the film’s production companies, Playtone, “knew that I loved the book, as did the screenwriter, Erik Jendresen, so they put us together. But it took a really long time to find financing” after she and the screenwriter signed onto the project.
But the filmmaker admitted that going through that extended period of trying to secure financing “was probably a good thing. It came along at the right time when I felt ready to do it.”
Ryan then delved into the process of adapting Saroyan’s novel into the script. She noted that “the book, especially the unabridged version, is complicated because it’s very episodic. But once we decided to string along the narrative on the three telegrams that Home delivers, it became very clear what needed to stay and go.”
Trimming down a lot of the dialogue was one particular element that Ryan felt was important. “The book can get a little sentimental or overwrought. But I think we pulled out a lot of the essences of what the characters meant,” she added.
**SPOILER ALERT** “We also changed the ending from the book and the other movie that Mickey Rooney was in (1943’s ‘The Human Comedy’). Homer never delivered the telegraph at the end. So we made all those kinds of changes, so that we could focus the movie on the coming-of-age of Homer,” Ryan revealed. **SPOILER ALERT**
Further speaking of Homer’s coming-of-age story, and whether contemporary adolescents can relate to her adaptation of Saroyan’s novel, the helmer noted that “I think this story focuses on social commentary, in the same way that ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ did. It’s a simple story that deals with complicated things.” She admitted that “I don’t know if 15-year-olds are going to love this movie. I feel like it’s an adult movie about a type of coming-of-age.”
Homer “gets the rug pulled out from under him, so he’s guided by the adults in his life. But he doesn’t have easy questions for them, and they don’t have easy answers for him,” Ryan also explained about the teen’s struggle to make sense of the challenges that are occurring in his life during the war.
“I think what Saroyan did was really sophisticated there. A lot of the things that Spangler, Grogan and Mrs. Macauley say to Home that help him grow aren’t the kind of easy answers that Homer necessarily wants to hear,” the director further noted. “Even Spangler says to him, ‘It doesn’t really matter what you have faith in, because the act of faith itself will save you.’ That’s a complicated thing to say to someone.” The three-time Golden Globe-nominated actress added that she appreciates that “Saroyan was a complicated thinker, while also being a real optimist.”
Further discussing bringing Mrs. Macauley to the screen in ‘Thaca,’ Ryan also mentioned why she decided to also play Homer’s mother in the drama. She was asked by the film’s production company to take on the role “for financing reasons. I thought, that’s one less person I have to worry about. It’s a small part, so I can do it and figure it out.”
But Ryan also admitted that starring in a film that she also directed wasn’t always the easiest thing to balance. “It’s such a subjective place when you’re in the mindset of a character, as opposed to a director who’s trying to have an objective overview of the entire film,” the fimmaker explained. She added that since it’s hard to mix directing and acting duties on the same project, she admires anyone can do so.
‘Ithaca’ features such talented actors, including Shepard, Linklater, Neustaedter, as well as Ryan’s son, Quaid, and Hanks, who she previously co-starred with in ‘Joe Versus the Volcano,’ ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ and ‘You’ve Got Mail.’ Ryan discussed the process of casting each performer in their respective roles in the war drama.
“We had a terrific casting director who helped find the actors,” the director explained. Neustaedter was one actor they discovered during the casting process. The helmer felt he “is so great, but he was new to L.A. He had just arrived from Kansas City. There was such a feeling of Kansas in him, and I loved that,” Ryan revealed.
“The younger actors were all cast in Virginia, as we had a casting session there. Some of the teenage actors are family friends of mine,” the filmmaker divulged with a laugh. “Also, three of the actor who play soldiers in the film, along with my son Jack, are in a comedy group together, which is called Sasquatch. So the whole movie consisted of collaborations between friends, from the actors to the DP (Director of Photography, Andrew Dunn, who previously worked with Ryan on the 1997 romantic comedy, ‘Addicted to Love’) to the musicians (including John Mellencamp, who composed the film’s score). There were so many people who helped me make this film.”
Further elaborating on her collaborations with the actors once they were cast, Ryan discussed the process of developing her working relationships with them, both as their co-star and director. “I had a little concentrated time with Alex. He and I talked a lot about the story’s themes, and we read through the script together for a few days before we started shooting,” the filmmaker divulged. “I also kept sending him movies to watch and books to read.”
The actress also mentioned that she was able to have dinner with a few of the other actors “about a month before we began shooting. I started to understand how they work and what they might need, which is a very orienting thing to do. It was a great process, as Sam worked differently than Hamish, who worked differently than Jack, etc. We didn’t have a lot of time together, but we did have conversations.”
In addition to explaining her collaboration with the rest of the cast on ‘Ithaca,’ Ryan also expressed her appreciation for working with Dunn as her cinematographer. She noted that one of the most captivating elements of the drama is the way each scene is visually presented.
“I’ve worked with Andrew before, and I think he works so beautifully. I’ve always loved his sensibility, especially with nature. We talked about ‘East of Eden’ and those types of movies that had similar scope. But it’s ambitious to compare (‘Ithaca’) to that film, since our project is so tiny,” the filmmaker stated. Dunn “also has teenagers, so he also related to this story. He graciously took the time to work hard on this film for us.”
Ryan added that she and Dunn started filming “everything that takes place in the telegram office. We shot those scenes with bigger and wider lens and a lot of light.” But in some of the more emotional scenes “between Homer and Grogan, the shots became more concentrated, and we used less light.”
Once Ryan and the rest of the cast and crew arrived on the set, they only had 23 days to shoot the independent film. “That was a really short schedule to make this movie, but it may be common for an indie film now,” she acknowledged. “You have to be optimistic to shoot that quickly. You think, there has to be a reason for this,” but she added that she learned how to contend with the limitations she faced while on the set.
In addition to casting the younger actors in Virginia, ‘Ithaca’ was also filmed on location in the southern state. Ryan concluded the interview by discussing how the experience of filming on location influences her work in front of, and behind, the camera.
“I really like working on location. You start looking at everything differently, and wondering if you can use the locations for different scenes,” the director noted. She also admitted with a laugh that “We used one building for about six different locations in the film. The upstairs was used for one location, while the downstairs was used for another location, and the outside and back were used for other scenes.”
Ryan also divulged that “You start to look at locations so differently when you work on independent films. I never would have looked at that building and gotten excited that it could stand in for six different locations before; I would have just driven by it. Working on an independent movie really makes you look at filmmaking differently.”
Watch the official trailer for ‘Ithaca’ below.
Written by: Karen Benardello