Closer to Home, also known by the working title Looking for America, is a 1995 American independent drama film directed by Joseph Nobile. It was screened in thirty international film festivals[3] including the 41st Valladolid International Film Festival[4] and the 31st Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.[5]
The film follows the story of Dalisay, a poor provincial girl who struggles to journey from the Philippine countryside to New York City to marry Dean, a disillusioned American ex-merchant marine. She's hoping to buy a cure for her dying sister and ultimately a future for her debt-ridden family, while he hopes to escape his disintegrating American family through love and a family of his own.[6][7][8]
Father and daughter seek help from the plantation owner
Forced to see the loan shark
Last night home
A New York welcoming
A rude awakening
Reception
Critical response
Initial response
"This haunting story of an ex-merchant marine and his mail order fiancé shows the link between marriage and commerce. Closer to Home is a quiet film with a deep impact, showing the tragedy in everyday people living everyday lives."
On the film's release in the United States, Michael Wilmington, reviewing for the Chicago Tribune, wrote, "A poor young woman whose sister needs a heart operation agrees to an arranged marriage so she can earn money in the United States. A fine debut. Another Green Card romance, but this time, the broader canvas---in both the Philippines and the U.S.--gives the story a wider emotional range and a near-epic feel."[12] The Chicago Reader wrote, "An effective low-key film about a lonely New York cabbie who wants to settle down and resorts to purchasing a Filipino mail-order bride... The first half of the film shuttles between the girl’s struggle to pay the extorting marriage broker and the cabdriver’s difficulties making final arrangements of his own. The second half deals with their meeting and the disappointment that ensues after the inevitable cultural clash and dashed expectations. No major surprises in this Philippine/U.S. coproduction, but director Joseph Nobile covers a good deal of ground, both cultural and emotional, with deftness and confidence. The film is also boosted by strong performances from the cast, especially John Michael Bolger as the forlorn cabdriver." [13]
Variety's film critic Derek Elley wrote positively about the film. "A cross-cultural drama with a few fresh twists...that steers clear of most of the normal cliches and shows an unforced, natural feel for its subject. Flawed only by an unsympathetic male lead and a weakly worked-out denouement...In true indie tradition, the story is worked out through a collection of small incidents and gradual character building rather than sheer plot. Pic’s extensive Philippine scenes are commendable for avoiding the usual “exotic” cliches, and the script is even-handed in a relaxed way in its portraits of the two countries."[14]
"Filmmaker Nobile has a natural affinity for his characters as they try to overcome the difficulties of a cross-cultural marriage. First-time actor Madeline Ortaliz, only 16 when shooting began, is a marvel as the seemingly fragile Dalisay."
When Closer to Home was released in the Philippines, the critical reaction was positive. Nestor Torre Jr., a film critic known for his long-running "Viewfinder" column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, lauded the film and its message in his review. He wrote, "Filmmaker Joseph Nobile has hit upon a creative and rewarding juxtaposition of two cultures, two families and two interesting individuals...The film's title says it all: the movie is about the characters' contrasting attitudes toward the concept of home. ...On point of performance, John Michael Bolger dominates the film with his complex characterization of Dean. Madeline Ortaliz is well-cast on point of dusky looks and modest ways, and she does have several affecting scenes ...On the whole, though, we're glad we saw this film because it gives us a new look at the Filipino-American relationship on personal, familial and cross-cultural levels. Since America and Western culture play such a big role in our lives, whether we're aware of it or not, and whether we like it or not, viewing the movie can result in reflections that can help clarify that relationship for us. Patience is needed, however, to give the film time to get its story going, and its valuable points, and finally come into its own". [16]
Writing for Malaya (newspaper), film critic Ethel Ramos, Filipino columnist of "STUDIO WHISPERS" said, 'How sad that a foreign director (Joseph Nobile) had to open our eyes to the beauty of our surroundings.'
"I agree with fellow movie columnist George Vail Kabristante that Elibon Film Productions' Closer to Home is a film every Filipino director should take time to watch. It is not only well-crafted (although "tighter" editing could make the film more exciting), it will also make people realize there's so much beauty in our countryside. How sad that a foreign director (Joseph Nobile) should open our eyes to the beauty of our surroundings. Indeed, there is still so much, especially in our barrios, that the goverment, it's officials and private contracters have yet to explore. Closer to Home is a quiet movie. Yet every scene is so beautifully, so convincingly and honestly presented one cannot help but be touched. The film reflects issues affecting Filipinas today. It shows how wrong Filipinas are in thinking America is the land of milk and honey. And that marrying an American is a dream come true."[17]
Ricky Lo, Entertainment Editor of The Philippine Star wrote in his long-running column "FunFare", "Pinoys in the eyes of a foreign director", ...A film called Closer to Home by independent American filmmaker Joseph Nobile (it's his 'debut' movie) is bound to make heads turn and touch a lot of Filipino hearts. I saw a preview of Closer to Home one stormy afternoon at the Mowelfund Center and I was impressed by Nobile's ability to capture the sensibility of the Filipino in the tightly-edited and finely-acted drama about a Filipina (played by newcomer Madeline Ortaliz, a cross between Princess Punzalan and Cecile Castillo, who was discovered during an audition of more than 200 aspirants)... Done in a span of four years (lack of logistics, you know), Closer to Home should be seen not only by Filipino filmmakers who must have become so accustomed to things and places 'local' that they take certain details for granted and therefore don't portray Filipino-ness as faithfully as it is done by, irony of ironies, this American who must have been a Filipino in his previous life.[18]
Abante film critic Billy Balbastro wrote in his popular column, "Take Billy", "The Great American Dream, From Brocka's 'Hellow, Soldier' and 'PX' to Joseph Nobile's 'Closer to Home', the American dream remains the same!"
"We pay tribute to Nobile who catches the pathos, the humor in the midst of poverty, the beauty in simple lives. As he follows the story of factory worker Dalisay (commendably portrayed by first timer Madeline Ortaliz, 19 of New Era U.) and how her father (Joonee Gamboa) moves heaven and earth to send her to America, we also take in a former Merchant Marine, dogged by his family to sell their house, hoping to make a match through a marriage bureau...Nobile's story is lucid; its cinematography, superb; the movie as a whole, well-acted and deftly-crafted. I especially like the fast-paced noisy beginning (the Pahiyas in Lucban) and the slow, eloquent pathetic, silent ending in contrast.[19]
In November 1999, after the film finished its long festival run and had its theatrical release in the Philippines, Balbastro followed up in his "Take Billy" column by writing, "Finally, 'Closer to Home' comes home!"
"Sometime in 1995, we wrote in glowing terms as a way of encouragement about a quiet yet eloquent film done by an American filmmaker, Joseph Nobile, reflecting the Filipino's American dream. Well-crafted and well-acted, Closer to Home is a social drama filmed in the Philippines and in America about a Filipina mail-order bride. The Nobile movie mirrors the typical Filipino family's fantasy and illusion about America and Americans and the reality of life in the Big Apple to a young Filipina who tries to pursue her dream, but always with her family in the Philippines in mind...This column is our way of thanking, of paying tribute to director-producer Joseph Nobile who catches the pathos, the humor in the midst of poverty, the beauty in simple lives, ours. I'm sure he is more in love with us and our people than we are with him. Thank you, Joseph, for Closer to Home." [20]
Film critic Gibbs Cadiz, reviewing for The Manila Times, wrote"...Nobile, a US-based director, has crafted a no-frills but enormously appealing film, thanks to its emotionally resonant subject matter ( a mail-order marriage between an impoverished Pinay and a disaffected, rootless American fortysomething), the largely unknown cast's overall competence, and the director's apparent compassion for and understanding of his characters, whether Pinoy or not...For a while, Closer to Home teeters on the edge of cliche in delineating one more tale of a cross-cultural romance gone sour (some of the characters' names-Dalisay, Luningning-betray a whiff of romanticized nostalgia for the Amorsoloesque Philippine countryside of old), but Nobile knows how to pull his punches...In fact, what's remarkable about Nobile's film is how it manages to be affecting without being melodramatic...This is refreshing filmmaking". [21]
Retrospective evaluation
Publicity still from 1995 Closer to Home
New York film critic Prairie Miller of the New York Film Critics Online, (NYFCO), wrote, "Closer to Home: Looking For America Review - Class And Culture Conflict Revisited"
"On this 30th Anniversary revisiting of the Joseph Nobile directed cross-cultural dramatic feature Closer To Home, there is rare welcome insight into diverse global perspectives beyond the usual Euro-centric world view that despite its three decades, sustains a scarce class conscious contemporary relevance...And though the film presents an uncompromising, determined realistic portrait of the past crafted with unusual depth and stinging social complexity, a clash offscreen with the currently reality in this country is unavoidable - namely with this horrendous moment of US government propagated ICE violence against immigrants, that Dalisay's lack of papers would have more likely kept her under the protection of Dean merely for survival, however horrible and even perilous such an ultimately desperate decision might be."[22]
Eeya Litiatco-Martin writing in The Philippine Star said, "Closer To Home brings to light a phenomenon most often looked upon with a jaundiced eye, not because of the element of ordinariness that somehow has leeched on to it, but because this portrait of a third world’s social dysfunction (not unique to the Philippines, the situation is replicated in third world countries) has been relatively ignored by various political leaderships and administrations — and worst, largely accepted with disdain and cynical resignation as an unpleasant fact of life.
"It is a riveting film touching on the convoluted evils created by society’s imbalances and the cross-cultural differences of two worlds. An exposition of two societies, two disparate yet similar families, two deeply-feeling contrary personalities with totally contrasting ideas of what “family” should constitute, the film — about a loving Filipino family (Dalisay’s) held hostage by poverty and social inequality and at the mercy of centuries-old feudal-type (in)justice — is set in an idyllic third world countryside juxtaposed against the first-world’s own unsettling enigma and communal dysfunction (equally regarded with cryptic cynicism in the “land of milk and honey”) and represented by a lower-middle class New York family (Dean’s), where relationships (in sharp contrast to Dalisay’s family) have been soured by acrimony, bitter jealousies and deeply-rooted resentment. While Dean’s messianic hope for love comes in the form of a mail-order bride, Dalisay sees the much-older Dean as a passage to the land that holds the key to her younger sister’s survival. (Luningning, the sister, has a congenital heart problem and needs urgent surgery). And while the conflict stems from mutual ideals — Dean pining for the gratification of love and family, Dalisay embodying its sacrificial aspect — the struggle and conflict of the two main characters put together by the transaction and tyranny of love materialize into a crisis. Consequently, the film stirs confusion as the viewer is left to empathize with both characters who assume the dichotomous roles of both hero and villain. Almost immediately, the perceptive viewer realizes that both are at odds with society at large and are inevitable victims of an oppressive state of existence. What is especially notable is the remarkable feat of how the director has added depth to the universal concepts of hope, love and family..."[23]
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