There are pangs of longing throughout Liz Sargent’s exhilaratingly gentle short, Take Me Home, that are accompanied by flashes of memory. Losing a parent is a singular journey for all of us, but Sargent’s film adds an extra layer by exploring the estranged relationship between two sisters. Can a relationship continue when one person is so reluctant to never come back? Can they regain that sense of home again?
Anna (played by Anna Sargent) is desperate to get in touch with her sister Emily (Jeena Yi) when she becomes worried about their mother’s health. Emily initially brushes her sister off, but she travels down to central Florida from New York City when Anna tells her that their mother is non-responsive. Anna is an adult living with a Cognitive Disability, and Emily is not prepared to pick up the slack in the house when she arrives.
With Emily’s arrival comes inevitable change, and Anna is not prepared for it. As the sisters prepare to sell or donate boxes upon boxes of items, we see beaded eyeglasses, elastic bracelets, and household items that carry history and meaning to Anna’s daily life. Look around your home and imagine how odd it would feel if those items were to be carted away unexpectedly. These two sisters have not even had the chance to properly grieve because there is a mountain of paperwork to get through let alone catch up on the physical space between them.
Sargent’s film is gloriously simple in construction but steeped in emotional depth. Yi never takes Emily to a place of unlikable frustration, and Emily’s love for Anna rings true even with the slightest glance or smile. Sargent, as Anna, is our indelible center. There is palpable fear for the future and the tentative anticipation of spreading her wings on her own. Anna can’t imagine leaving the only home she ever knew, and Emily has, essentially, become the head of the house she never thought she would come back to.
Going home again comes with a lot of baggage, and facing uncertainty only lends itself to our anxiety. Take Me Home is a film drenched with love: unexpected, fulfilling, and necessary love that comes with growing up, maturity, and realizing your own potential.
