52 Films by Women Vol 10. 6. TAKE ME HOME (Director: Liz Sargent)
Sargent’s film bears
the Sundance logo, which is to say it is conceived with a social purpose, espouses
liberal values, shows something sticky and awkward, makes the audience ooh and
ahh but feel good at the end. After its festival premiere in January, Take Me Home is less likely to spark a bidding war, more a
response of, ‘are you kidding?’
The protagonist is 38-year-old
Korean American adoptee, Anna Sargent, Liz’s real-life adopted sister – they
are not biologically related but adopted by the same couple. Anna ‘plays’ a woman
with the same name, but her on-screen sister is Emily (Ali Ahn), who has settled
in another state; the pair’s ageing parents, Joan and Bob, are played by
Marceline Hugot and Victor Stezak. Anna, who in real-life participated in the
Special Olympics – her basketball skills are showcased here – has an unnamed
mental health condition that causes short-term memory loss, inability to read
instructions or hear what’s going on. She takes medication, though its purpose
isn’t specified.
It is unclear how Anna fills her day with her retiree parents,
but she goes shopping, watches television and in one surprising scene accesses pornography.
Anna says she likes boys but is not in a relationship. A family outing consists
of watching cruise ships pass by, sometimes two at a time. The family says
‘grace’ at the table and takes their pills together, though mention of water
sets Anna off. ‘I want my water bottle,’ she pleads, her parents having settled
down to sleep. ‘I can’t find my water bottle.’ Her parents don’t get up to
assist her, telling her to stop looking for it. Agitated, Anna opens cupboards
and doors and knocks a vase off a table, which shatters on the ground.
In another scene, Anna drops her water bottle while climbing
into the family car. The bottle rolls underneath the vehicle. Anna crawls under
the vehicle, unaware that Bob has climbed into the driver’s seat and is starting
the engine. Fortunately, he sees her. ‘Oh my God, Anna,’ he cries, aware that
she was narrowly spared injury. ‘I want my water bottle,’ Anna replies. ‘Forget
about it and get in,’ he tells her.
Shopping consists of Anna picking out items that her mother puts
back. ‘We don’t need those,’ Joan tells her. Joan gives Anna a bath, shampooing
her hair, though Anna is resistant to it. She reminisces how Emily loved Anna
the most. ‘She always made Emily laugh.’ For her part, Anna has Emily on speed
dial. However, Emily doesn’t always pick up, painfully attuned to the mundanity
of Anna’s requests.
Tragedy strikes. Joan sits in her chair perspiring. Anna
feeds her water but then Joan dies. Anna calls Emily, who understands the
severity of the situation much more acutely than her sister. She flies down to
Florida, unaccompanied by her partner. ‘The insurance policy didn’t meet all
the funeral costs,’ Emily tells her father. ‘I covered the remainder with my
credit card. I’ll manage it somehow,’ she adds. She is happy to spend time with
Anna, who tells her that she is ‘the best sister ever’. When Emily has to
leave, Anna reverses that opinion.
The family refrigerator is filled with meat that has gone
off. Emily insists that it is thrown out, but her father won’t let her. He
makes dinner with the food he has salvaged. Emily doesn’t hold out her plate
for a slice. ‘I don’t eat meat,’ she explains.
Emily’s money problems are revealed when she and Anna go
shopping. Anna picks out a box of popsicles. ‘We don’t need those,’ says Emily,
echoing her late mother. ‘I want them,’ insists Anna. ‘Well take them then,’
Emily snaps, while at a check-out. She is told that her credit card has been
declined. While rooting for another one, Anna goes to another checkout with the
popsicles. ‘That’ll be six dollars,’ the cashier (Sean Liang) tells her. ‘I
don’t have six dollars,’ Anna says. She leaves the store with the box of
popsicles, the cashier getting up to stop her, but knowing that he isn’t fast
enough to do so. Rather than lecture her on her crime, Emily revels in it. ‘Oh
my God, Anna, you are badass,’ she exclaims. The pair share the popsicles.
‘These are good,’ Emily remarks, reinforcing Anna’s wrongdoing.
Having exhausted her compassionate leave, Emily pleads with
her employer to be allowed to take more time off. ‘What about unused holiday
leave?’ she asks. Her stay is time limited. She speaks to her father. ‘Do you
have a plan?’ she asks. Bob doesn’t engage. He suppresses his grief; the film
is more focussed on practicalities. Emily walks in on Anna watching pornography
on her computer, then leaves the room. She laughs.
‘Do you have a boy?’ Anna asks Emily. ‘Yes,’ Emily replies
slowly. She doesn’t talk about him, as if completely segmenting her family from
her partner. Emily joins Anna and her father to watch the cruise ships. ‘Don’t
you want to go somewhere?’ she asks Anna.
A row erupts over Anna’s tee-shirt. Anna wants it, but it is
in the wash. She insists. Emily takes it out of the washing machine and gives
it to her. Anna’s own sense of hygiene is limited. Emily can only clean her
with wipes. In a later, far more alarming scene, Anna attempts to shower
herself whilst wearing clothes and slips in the bath, bruising her arm.
Emily has to leave. Anna is angry. ‘Call me any time,’ Emily
insists. We will only see her again as an image on Anna’s phone. Before she
departs, Emily asks her father, ‘why did you adopt a disabled child?’ ‘We had
so much love to give,’ Bob snaps back. His regrets are shrouded in a defensive
crouch.
Anna’s problems emerge when she and her father go shopping.
He stands in front of a shelf, unable to remember why he is there. Anna places
a loaf of bread in his hand. ‘Bread, Dad,’ she tells him. ‘This is the one we
have.’
Anna and her father argue over the TV, Anna changing channel
to deny her father his favourite programme. In one scene, he stands in front of
the sink as water overflows. We don’t see the water being switched off.
Pictured: 'Rock can't be cut by scissors.' Bob (Victor Slezak) and Anna (Anna Sargent) in a scene from the family drama, 'Take Me Home', written and directed by Liz Sargent. Still courtesy of Sundance Institute
Bob takes Anna to a specialist centre, mostly filled with
old people. He enquires about the cost for sending his daughter there. ‘We have
Medicare and Medicaid.’ ‘Her needs are
complex,’ he is told. ‘You’re looking at $10,000 a month.’ Before he leaves,
Bob is given some advice. If Anna is brought to the centre and abandoned
without being handed over by a responsible adult, someone would have to take
her in.
Anna doesn’t want to leave her home, but she does storm out,
catching the eye of a group of young men – perhaps college students – living a
few houses down. Anna is invited to sit with them by James (Shane Harper), who
offers her a beer. At this point, we fear the worst, in particular sexual
exploitation. However, he introduces her to the game, ‘Stack on Pat’, which
involves balancing a semi-crushed beer can on the head of Pat, a young man
asleep in a chair. Anna succeeds. She does not like beer. Later, she asks to
hang out with James, showing him her sporting prowess, shooting basketballs and
taking the ball when James is in possession. He doesn’t ask her about her
condition. Their relationship doesn’t develop,
In the most dramatic scene, Bob leaves the house, walking in
a straight line and disappearing into the undergrowth. His fate is uncertain
but is driven by a belief that he cannot care for his daughter. Alone in the
house, Anna places a meal in a foil tray into the microwave. The house’s
electricity supply splutters. There are sparks from the microwave. Anna is in
grave danger. This is followed by a sequence of flashing lights.
What happens next is presented as a dream. Anna is living in
a community of individuals with complex needs, given a lanyard with a job
title, handing out red wool to a knitting circle, placing a soothing hand on a
person’s shoulder, remarking ‘it will be OK’ and listening to a man describe an
autistic superhero. We conclude that Anna was saved, that her life can be made
meaningful in a different, one imagines heavily subsidized setting. I was
reminded of the climax of Terry Gilliam’s film Brazil in which Sam
Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) is flying. Except he isn’t.
Liz Sargent shows the problem and the solution at two ends
of a scale. It is not entirely clear whether the solution is available to
everyone in Anna’s position. The real Anna lives in Liz’s household. There is
no fully funded utopia.
Reviewed at Berlinale 2026, Colossium Screen One, Schönhauser Allee, Berlin, Sunday 22 February 2026, 22:00 screening
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