When Andrew Came Home

When Andrew Came Home
Produced by	Michael Filerman
Written by	Susan Rice
Starring	Park Overall Seth Adkins Jason Beghe Evan Laszlo
Music by	Jay Ferguson
Cinematography	Malcolm Cross
Editing by	Lance Luckey
Distributed by	Lifetime Television
Release date(s)	30 October 2000
Running time	88 min.
Language	English

When Andrew Came Home or Taming Andrew (as released in the UK) is a 2000 television film, directed by Artie Mandelberg.

Two members of the supporting cast later became regulars on the Canadian teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation: Jake Goldsbie, who played bully Carl Rudnick (ironically, his character Toby Isaacs was not the bully, but was bullied himself), and Katie Lai, the girl who stood up for Andrew, played Toby's girlfriend, Kendra Mason.

Plot

(Based on a true story) On the Fourth of July, Gail is forced by the courts to hand over her five year old son, Andrew, to his father Ted for the weekend. Ted arrives with his young girlfriend, Pattie, and seems jealous over Gail's boyfriend, Eddie, and the relationship he has with Andrew. After packing Andrew's things, singing their nightly song, and tucking one of Andrew's teddy bears into bed, the two walk outside to give Andrew to Ted. Despite her maternal instinct and the fact that Andrew has a slight fever, Gail gives her son to her ex-husband, who promises to return him on time as he always does.

Gail's maternal instinct acts up again and she feels something is wrong. After being four hours late, Gail calls the police telling them that her ex-husband kidnapped her child. The police refuse to listen to her and her report is not filed. Meanwhile, Ted is driving a sleeping Andrew far away from his mother's house and goes north. In the morning, they are stopped by the police for speeding right before they cross the state border. Since no report is filed, Ted and his girlfriend are not stopped from kidnapping Andrew.

Five years go by and Gail has married her boyfriend, Eddie, and they have an infant son together named EJ. Gail has kept Andrew's room exactly the way he left it with a few presents for all the birthdays and Christmases he missed. One day while tending to the baby, she gets a call from Ted telling her to meet him at a phone booth and to not call the cops.

Gail and Eddie go to the phone booth and get a call from Ted telling them to go to another phone booth in another town. After waiting at that phone booth, Ted once again tells them to go to another phone booth, but Gail yells at her ex-husband and asks him if Andrew is coming home. He tells her that Andrew will be arriving at the bus station at 4 o'clock.

Despite losing all hope of finding her son and thinking that Ted lied to her, Gail still goes to the bus station. After a 4 o'clock bus arrives and Andrew does not depart, Gail is about to leave when another bus headed for Buffalo arrives. This bus drops Andrew off. He is dirty and has no luggage. Gail runs to greet her son, but gets no response from him. She places her son in the back seat of her SUV and sits beside him, but Andrew prefers to sit on the floor curled up. Gail buckles Andrew in, and the three go home.

Gail and Eddie lead Andrew through the house and up to his room. Andrew looks around and pushes the presents off the bed and begins to jump on the bed. He makes grunting noises of delight, but still has not said a word. His grandmother walks to the room with EJ and Andrew grunts and holds out his arm, wanting to hold the baby. His grandmother places the baby on the bed and Andrew cuddles with his half-brother.

At dinner, Andrew starts to show more effects that his father had on him. While his mother is saying grace, Andrew sticks his hands in the bowl of spaghetti on the table and begins to eat with his hands. Gail brushes this off saying that Andrew must be hungry since he hasn't eaten since this morning. Later that night, Andrew is reluctant to talk to his mother and is unresponsive when she sings their nightly song about the moon. He turns away from Gail when she tries to kiss him and screams when she turns out the lights. After Gail turns on a nightlight and leaves the room, Andrew goes into a fetal position and goes to the corner of his room.

Gail takes Andrew to both a doctor and a psychiatrist. The doctor says he is very healthy, considering that Andrew hasn't been to a doctor in a while. However,when checking Andrew's eyesight, he says he can only see dots and not the letters on the chart. The psychiatrist later tells Gail that Andrew cannot read or do math, but is very bright. They want to send Andrew to a special school that would help Andrew catch up in his academics, but it would require Andrew to live at the school. Gail refuses to part with her son once again, and the psychiatrist recommends that she send Andrew to public school so he can socialize with the other children.

That does not go over well, though. A bully named Carl Rudnick makes fun of Andrew because he only stands on the side during recess and does not talk to the other children. Things go completely wrong during a game of baseball when another child hit the baseball in Andrew's direction, and instead of trying to catch the ball, Andrew just stands there and lets the ball fall to the ground and lets it roll away. This makes Carl furious and he yells at Andrew, who responds by urinating on Carl.

The principal calls both Gail and Carl's mother. Mrs. Rudnick calls Andrew a freak and says that he should not be in public school, even yelling at Andrew after he apologizes. After Carl and his mother leave, Gail has a discussion with the principal. He wants to hold Andrew back, but she refuses and takes him out of the school.

Besides his behavior at school, Andrew acts weird at home also. While driving one day, Andrew screams after seeing a car that resembles his father's car and still does not talk to his mother, not trusting her. On his tenth birthday, Andrew sticks his head into his birthday cake for no reason at all, and later he speaks for the first time, telling his mother that he doesn't know why he did it and that he thinks his mother is trying to trick him. One night before dinner, he's playing with a glass of milk and it accidentally fall off the table, almost injuring EJ on the floor. Andrew's behavior angers Eddie and begins to fear for his own son. After Andrew accidentally sets the house on fire, Eddie takes the baby and they go live with his mother for a few months.

After taking her son out of school, Gail begins to teach Andrew at home. She is proud of her son when he was finally able to read the book Curious George, but when she shows Andrew's doctor his ability to read, they find out that he had only memorized the book. Gail is frustrated, and that night Andrew takes out the book The Little Engine That Could. He then wakes up Gail and shows that he can read a page from the book.

Slowly but surely, Andrew continues to make progress, and things seem to get better for the family, with Eddie and EJ even moving back into the house. However, a woman with Social Services tells Gail that this is not good enough and if Andrew isn't on grade level by the time the summer ends, then she will be forced to send him to the special school. In order to help Andrew, Gail takes Andrew to her brother's farm so he can learn in a new atmosphere where he has no history.

Andrew shows how intelligent he is by being able to learn how to milk a cow and how to care for the animals very quickly, but is unable to subtract 2 from 7. Gail cries to her brother saying that she loves Andrew and thanks God every day for his safe return, but misses her old son, adding that if she had a choice to pick her son, it wouldn't have been Andrew.

Having overhead this conversation, Andrew runs out of the house. Gail runs after him and eventually finds him in the stables. She says she didn't mean what she said, but Andrew doesn't believe her. His father told him that she did not want him anymore and that she didn't love him. Gail explains that that isn't true, that she looked for him every day and missed him every minute during the five years he was gone. She told him she loves him and he will always be her son. After crying, Andrew falls asleep in the stables and Gail watches over her son.

He wakes up startled and in fear when Gail tries to place a blanket over him for warmth. She tells him he doesn't have to be afraid, and then Andrew finally opens up and tells his mother about his experiences with his father. They never stayed long at any place and he was not allowed outside during the day. He was usually locked in a room all day by himself watching TV. Both adults were abusive; Pattie hit him, and Ted would lock him in a dark closet. At night, they put him outside, tied to a long leash, where he would sleep in the trees in the dark with the frightening sounds of the nocturnal animals surrounding him. Andrew was not allowed to go to school or socialize with other children his age, or anyone other than Ted and Pattie for that matter. He told his mother how he would think about home and her, but then get angry that she didn't love or want him. Then he explains that now he knows she did love him and want him. He then tells his mother that he is home, and the two cry in each other's arms and sing their bedtime song together.

In the end, it is revealed Ted was tried for kidnapping and abusing Andrew, found guilty, and was imprisoned.

Cast and crew

Cast

• Park Overall - Gail
• Jason Beghe - Eddie
• Seth Adkins - Andrew
• Lynne Deragon - Joanne
• Craig Eldridge - Jack
• Shannon Lawson - Deena Drake
• Carl Marotte - Ted
• Patrick Chilvers - Officer Reston
• Jeff Clarke - Mr. Kemper
• Stan Coles - Dr. Burton
• Eve Crawford - Janet Hilgarde
• Jean Daigle - Officer Pearl
• Shane Daly - Highway Cop
• Jake Goldsbie - Carl Rudnick
• Bruce Gray - Dr. Matthews
• Katie Lai - Little Girl
• Bill Lake - Desk Sergeant
• Evan Laszlo - Young Andrew
• Joanne Reece - Officer Warner
• Kim Roberts - Margaret Granger
• Rhona Shekter - Mrs. Rudnick
• Jared Wall - Kid in Playground
• Patricia Zentilli - Pattie
• Hugo Hardinge - EJ
• Oliver Hardinge - EJ

Crew

Produced by

• Michael Filerman - Executive Producer
• Robert Michael Lewis - Supervising Producer
• Michael J. Maschio - Line Producer
• Joseph E. Miller - Producer

Original Music by

• Jay Ferguson

Cinematography by

• Malcolm Cross (Director of Photography)

Film Editing by

• Lance Luckey

Production Design by

• Alistair Macrae

Set Decoration by

• Christine MacLean

Costume Design by

• Jill Aslin

Makeup Department

• Marie Nardella - Makeup Artist
• Pam Roberts - Hair Stylist

Production Management

• Paul D. Goldman - Executive in charge of production
• Wes Irwin - Post-production Supervisor
• Michael J. Maschio - Unit Production Manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director

• Avra Fein - Second Assistant director
• David Vaughan - First Assistant Director

Art Department

• Imre de Jonge - Property Master
• Travis Staley - Construction Coordinator

Sound Department

• Doug Davey - Sound Re-recording Mixer
• Vince Gutierrez - Supervising Sound Editor
• Chris Haire - Sound Re-recording Mixer
• Richard L. Morrison - Sound Re-recording Mixer
• Tim Arthur - Adr Mixer
• Scott C. Kolden - Sound Effects Editor

Stunts

• Shelley Cook - Stunt Coordinator
• Scotty Cook - Stunt Double

Camera and Electrical Department

• Sean Bourdeau - Key Grip
• David Owen - Gaffer
• John Medland - Still Photographer
• Roman M. Neubacher - Assistant Camera
• Richard Wilmot - Steadicam Operator
• Hugh Young - Generator Operator

Casting Department

• Rita Bertucci - Extras Casting
• Tina Gerussi - Casting: Toronto
• Theodore S. Hann - Casting: Los Angeles

Costume and Wardrobe Department

• Barbara Somerville - Assistant Costume Designer

Editorial Department

• Ryan D. Adams - Post-production Coordinator
• Patrick Magee - Assistant Editor
• Danny Kim - Post-production Assistant
• Don Salerno - Post-production Associate

Music Department

• Robert Irving - Orchestrator
• Steve Mccroskey - Music Editor

Transportation Department

• Evan Siegel - Transportation Coordinator

Other crew

• Fred Eldridge - Film Transfer
• Sarah James - Production Coordinator
• Marnie Mason - Production Accountant
• Dug Rotstein - Script Supervisor
• Eardley Wilmot - Location Manager
• Meredith Caplan - Assistant Production Coordinator

Awards

• Seth Adkins was nominated for a Young Artist Award (2001) 'Best Performance in a TV Movie (Drama) - Leading Young Actor'

External links

• When Andrew Came Home at the Internet Movie Database