A Home of Our Own

A Home of Our Own is a 1993 drama film directed by Tony Bill, starring Kathy Bates and Edward Furlong.

It is the story of a mother and her six children trying to establish a home in the small town of Hankston, Idaho in 1962.

Plot
Widow Frances Lacey (Kathy Bates) works at a factory. She is fired when one of the men gropes her, and she hits him in return. The same day, her son is brought home by the police for stealing change from payphones, but they don't press charges.

Shortly after this, Frances decides that LA is not the place to raise a family. She packs the kids up, sells everything they can carry and starts driving. She figures she'll know where she's going when she sees it.

The family is picking through the charred remains of the house when Frances finds their meager savings in a blackened jar. Hope is reborn for Frances, but Shayne (Edward Furlong) angrily demands a reality check.

When rebuilding seems impossible, Mr. Munimura (Soon-Tek Oh) arrives with professional town folk and supplies to rebuild. Whether stubborn independent Frances likes it or not, rebuilding has started as Mr. Munimura gives her a comforting hug.

Frances relents, but true to character, she states that all will be paid back. Toys, clothes, and blankets are also provided for the children. Frances only lets them build the house as far as it was before the fire.

Narrating, Shayne says that it took them six months to finish the rest of the house and four years to pay everyone back, but that it brought them all closer together as a family. Even though he hated Idaho at first, he still lives there and has never been back to LA.

Box Office
In its opening weekend, "A Home Of Their Own" grossed at $808,428.

Critical Reception
Based on 11 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a rating of 45%.

Roger Ebert gave the movie three stars, saying, "This is not a great movie, but it has a big heart."

Louis Black from the Austin Chronicle gave the movie two in a half stars, saying, "It isn't that A Home of Our Own broadcasts its punches, it's not that subtle. This is clearly a fiction, a Hollywood structure, hollow and empty."

He was also critical of Kathy Bates' performance in the film saying, "Bates's performance as the mother, crucial to the film, in keeping with the artificiality of the project, is completely acted. We don't believe this is the beleaguered mother of six, we think this is Kathy Bates acting like the beleaguered mother of six."