Movie Review: All We Had Starring Katie Holmes

Katie Holmes (“Ray Donovan,” Batman Begins) makes her feature length directorial debut in the Tribeca Film Festival selected drama, All We Had which released in limited theaters, VOD, and On Demand last month.

The film is based on the best-selling novel by Annie Weatherwax (Add it to Goodreads) and has been adapted by Josh Boone (Stuck in Love, The Vampire Chronicles) and Jill Killington (The Vampire Chronicles). While I haven’t read the novel, I can say that I was really moved by the film.

Release Date: December 9, 2016
Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 105 minutes

For fifteen-year-old Ruthie Carmichael (Stefania Owen) and her young mother, Rita (Katie Holmes), life has never been stable. Fleeing Rita’s latest boyfriend, they find themselves living out of their beat-up car, and heading east in search of a better life. When money runs out and their car breaks down, they become stranded in a small town where Rita ultimately lands a steady job waitressing at Tiny’s, a local diner where they begin to develop a family: tender-hearted Marty (Richard Kind), the owner of the diner, and Pam (Eve Lindley), a transgender waitress with big dreams who becomes Ruthie’s closest friend.

All We Had is disorienting at first but it only takes a few minutes for the scene to truly be set. From the beginning, it’s clear that this will be moving story about hitting rock bottom and refusing to let that be the end of your story.

The story follows Ruthie (Stefania Owen) and her mom, Rita (Katie Holmes) who live in poverty out of their car, after Rita’s latest breakup, in search for a better life. I love the different perspectives of disappointment and surrender and isolation that are shown through mother and daughter. I love how nuanced the storytelling is and how well that’s captured on the screen by director, Katie Holmes.

As the film progresses, I love that character growth isn’t dramatic but realistic. I love that over the course of the film we see Ruthie having responsibilities and weights to bear that the average teenager doesn’t have and her realizing that this separates her from them in a way those teens don’t even realize. At first, life on the road is carefree and fun but as Ruthie gets older, the rose colored glasses come off and she begins to see the cycle of recklessness that keeps them in the unfortunate state that she and her mother are always in. Ruthie has a lot to bear. An alcoholic mother who typically attracts the wrong kind of men and has quite the rocky romantic road.A mom who searches for security and direction from men rather than from within herself. A mother who has groomed her daughter to steal and be fraudulent in order to survive. A mother who has not groomed her daughter to work hard, be honest, be determined to do better and be better. Together, these two learn these lessons. And it’s beautiful.

We learn so much through Ruthie, Rita, Marty (Richard Kind), the owner of the diner that Rita finds herself working at after a certain incident, and Pam (Eve Lindley), a transgender waitress and the niece of Marty, who becomes a great friend to Ruthie. Through these characters and wonderful relationship dynamics, we rediscover the significance for us as individuals to not only be seen but have loved ones who influences our lives be there to even see us, really see us. Your heart will go out to and maybe even relate to these characters as they pour their hearts out each in their own way navigating scary paths, being taken advantage of, and seeing how gratitude and true unconditional love can turn someone’s life upside down.

All We Had shows us, realistically, what can happen when we make the decision to stop making bad choices and try again and again to make good decisions with what we’ve got. The benefits reaped do not come overnight. They don’t even come by the end of the movie. But a clear conscious, sound mind, and measure of hope that wasn’t quite there before are. And those steps that are taken in life, often overlooked, are not overlooked here. That’s the beauty of this little quiet film.

Yes, there’s nothing particularly magnificent about this film, nothing that makes this movie stand out among the rest. But perhaps some elements that have hints of cliche and almost make these characters at times feel like they’re in boxes and represent X, are expanded upon more and have more depth in the novel. There is so little time to execute so much that happens in a book so I imagine adapting this wasn’t easy. But not having read the novel, I think they accomplished serving up the heart of the story. And that’s worth the watch.

Also Starring in All We Had:

Stefania Owen (“The Carrie Diaries”)
Luke Wilson (“Roadies”)
Richard Kind (Inside Out)
Mark Consuelos (“Queen of the South”)
Judy Greer (Ant-Man)
Eve Lindley (“Mr. Robot”)

All We Had releases on DVD February 28, 2017.