Any Place I Hang My Hat

Rating:
Summary: LISTEN, LAUGH, AND BE MOVED
Review: A glance at the title of Susan Isaacs's latest and one thinks, "Is home" - "Any place I hang my hat is home....." Clever title as in this case heroine Amy Lincoln isn't quite sure where her home is. Her mother abandoned her when she was but a baby, and she was raised by streetwise Grandma Lil who made their living by doing leg waxes, and picking up a few things (literally) on the side.

Despite childhood in a less than advantaged neighborhood Amy has pulled herself up and out. With the aid of a sympathetic social worker she received a scholarship to a prestigious elitist school. From there it was on to Harvard and a job at "In Depth," an ultra serious and dull weekly.

Broadway, film and TV actress Jane Adams gives rich voice to the spunky Amy, whether she's observing privileged classmates, visiting jail for a chat with her dad, or searching within herself to discover where she really belongs. It's a journey to self-discovery that Amy makes and Jane Adams is a superior guide.

When Amy is assigned to cover a political fund raiser she feels empathy for a young Hispanic, Freddy Carrasco, who barges in to announce that he's the illegitimate son of the candidate. As she befriends Freddy she also begins a search for her own mother. "How the hell can anyone not have any feeling or even curiosity about a human being he (or she) was responsible for giving life to?" That's the central question for both Amy and Freddy.

In true Isaacs style a question is raised for all of us - who actually is family and in this wide, wide world where do we belong?

Listen, laugh, be moved, and thoroughly enjoy.

- Gail Cooke