While Jane Holman is driving with her two sons, she accidentally runs into a drifter, Jack McCloud, who breaks his leg. Being responsible, Jane invites Jack, and his dog, to stay at her home until his leg has healed. Jack struggles to adapt their lifestyle, and finds himself loved by the family.
Acting
Swayze's quiet wounded masculinity hits different.
Direction
Coolidge balances whimsy and genuine sorrow.
Cinematography
Golden hour nostalgia for a past that never was.
Director
Martha Coolidge
Patrick Swayze
Jack McCloud
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Jeanne Holman
Joseph Mazzello
Tom Holman
David Marshall Grant
Phil
Jay O. Sanders
Coach Schramka
Michael O'Keefe
Adult Tom
John Diehl
Leland's Dad
Diane Venora
Joyce
Brock Pierce
Scott
David Hart
Brian's Father
Scott Patterson
Scott's Father
Michael Laskin
Sackin's Father
Annabelle Gurwitch
Leland's Mother
Moira Sinise
Katherine Holman
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Martha Coolidge fought studio pressure to make the magic more explicit; she insisted on ambiguity.
This flopped in '95 but became cable TV comfort food, especially after Swayze's 2009 death reframed it as unintentional elegy.
US
