Sentimental fantasy about a bearded drifter (beatnik? commie?) and his bright-eyed mutt, empowered (one or the other of them) to grant the individual wishes of a Korean War widow, her athletically ungifted elder son, her cancer-ridden younger son. The supernatural is minimized; the natural is stressed (with the always gentle touch of director Martha Coolidge): the Eisenhower-Era Americana of tract houses, molded Jello, pedal pushers, a "woody" station wagon, Davy Crockett merchandise, etc.; the social dynamics between family members and neighbors; the beautifully judged and utterly unglamorized performance of Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as the worried but steadfast single mom. With Patrick Swayze, Joseph Mazzello. (1995) — Duncan Shepherd
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