‘Going Home’ Is a Low-Key, Predictable Trip

“Going Home” can be a daunting prospect for a successful woman whose elderly father is sending packages to her dead brother in Vietnam and running his car into a school bus.

While the situation merits our sympathy, it doesn’t generate gripping drama in the CBS movie bearing that title.

The film focuses on the deteriorating condition of crusty, confused Charles (Jason Robards), a widower with a love of poetry and literature whose overachieving daughter Katherine (Sherry Stringfield) returns from a fast-track New York existence to oversee his unstable life.

Robards is not approaching death’s door (a la his cantankerous, profane character in “Magnolia”), but he still bears close scrutiny, and Stringfield’s considerate Katherine makes a positive difference as caretaker.

The low-key, rather sluggish teleplay by Dalene Young revolves around themes of guilt and sacrifice. Robards regrets the way he brought up his late son, while Katherine reaches a predictable crossroad when she must choose between family and career, in this case a high-profile job in publishing.

The story by Beth Polson favors the change to a quaint, small-town lifestyle, the sort in which sitting on a porch and quietly collecting one’s thoughts is perceived as a preferable alternative to the big-city rat race. (Try telling that to the rats.)

Robards and Stringfield share scenes capably, but there’s never any doubt what the latter will do, which deprives the film of any significant conflict or tension.

Contrary to the renowned words of Thomas Wolfe, the film suggests that you can go home again. Odds are it just won’t be very exciting when you get there.

* “Going Home” airs Sunday at 9 p.m. on CBS. The network has rated it TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children).