Genre: Drama/Historical
Director: Steven Spielberg
Writer: Rachel Hallett Hardcastle
Based on the novel by Irene Hunt
Cast: Jacob Tremblay, Ethan Thomas Jung, Maxwell Simkins, Carey Mulligan, Mark Ruffalo, Jean Dujardin, Peter Dinklage, Dafne Keen, Sonequa Martin-Green, Jeff Ward, Drake, Andrew Lincoln, Andrea Riseborough
Plot: On a cold October morning, Josh Grondowski (Jacob Tremblay) is about to deliver papers. Josh finds his mother (Andrea Riseborough) in the kitchen; she prepares some milk for him. In addition, mom used to teach kids how to play the piano. Still, ever since people stopped having enough money for luxuries, she started taking in jobs for ironing clothes.
It’s 1932, Josh had been clashing with his father (Andrew Lincoln). During his early years, he was treated like a prince. Then, when he's five years old, Joey was born. Around the same time, Josh felt that all his father’s love for him has already left. His dad finally lost all his pride, becoming more hostile towards him & the family. Nevertheless, Josh had made a vow that he’ll be patient with his father, just as what his mother had suggested.
When Josh returns from his route, he finds his parents sitting in the kitchen. Shivering, he had forgotten to wear a jacket. This angers his father. Josh’s about to talk back, but then he saw his mother’s pleading face, and Josh decides to stay silent. His father apologizes to his mother instead then leaves. Josh didn’t feel like eating, asking his mother not to fix him anything. Coming out of his room, Josh finds his mother had fixed him a sandwich.
At Penn High School, Josh always played the piano, sharing it with his friend, Howie (Maxwell Simkins). With music, Josh escapes every hardship he had in life. Every day, he and Howie would shut the door to the music room and played music endlessly. Howie had never known his father, and his mother was a drunk. Despite this, he’s eager to smile and laugh. That afternoon, they’re practicing a piece that they’ve worked on together. Josh felt angry because of how terrible nature seemed in the outside world. But as Howie arrived, his mood changed for the better. Before saying goodbye, they made plans to meet up by the corner drugstore.
That afternoon, when Josh got home, he sees Joey (Ethan Thomas Jung) feeding some milk to a stray. Joey explains that he got a nickel from Kitty as a birthday present. Josh reminds Joey to just give the nickel to their mother. Joey looked scared, asking Josh if he’s going to tell mom. Shaking his head, Josh tells him that there's already enough trouble at home.
When they get inside the house, they found Kitty crying and their dad standing over her. She's crying about not getting a job. Their father reprimanded her for trying harder. That's the first time Josh saw his dad being mean towards Kitty. They remain quiet throughout dinner until Josh decided to ask for second servings of potato. His father got angry with this while his mother tried to soothe him. Finally, his dad got up and went out of the house; Josh argues with his mom about how his dad's treating them. Finally, Josh blurted out, getting his own place instead. His mother nodded and told him that Josh's making things harder for her.
Howie's a little bit late for their meeting but shares an orange and hears Josh out. Josh explains to him about his plans and how his mother's siding with his father. They both choose to use their musical talents to good use and earn a living. They think that Chicago's far too big for their dreams and want to hit the small towns instead. They're both shocked when they saw Joey spying on them. Joey tells Josh that he’d be joining them. Josh says no, but Joey turns to Howie pleading. Howie looks at Josh, asking him why Joey couldn’t join them. Josh says that Joey would only be a nuisance to protect him. However, Howie argues that Joey’s voice could help them get their music out. Josh remained firm but got overturned.
Later the night, Josh and Joey meet up with Howie. Then, they go to a Salvation Army kitchen that's open. A man gives them bowls of oatmeal and told them to never come back. Next, they started panhandling, with Joey and Howie taking the lead as Josh watches them. Finally, Joey sang while Howie played his banjo.
When it grows dark, they huddled together on a platform. Joey and Howie fell asleep, but Josh remains wide-awake. The following day, after eating breakfast, they ride the streetcar to get to the yards. Once they reached the freight yards, many men are making a living for themselves there.
Josh & Joey hideout on a train kept quiet during the trip. They get off when a bull wakes them up. Then, on another boxcar, a group of men there welcomes them harshly. Suddenly, the hobo from earlier joins them onto the next train. Just as the next train started, the hobo carries Joey on the train, followed by Josh. Howie's supposed to go next, tossing his banjo to Josh. After that, Josh wasn’t sure what happened next, but Howie’s got thrown into the tracks. Suddenly, Josh's shellshocked as Joey cries for Howie.
By late afternoon, Josh and Joey get off the freight train. Getting off the train, they wanted to spend their night in silent grief. Some men toss them a can of beans, suggest returning home. Josh realized how important Joey is. The boys find a bridge with a ravine to spend the night in. They both cried that night.
Finally, Josh decides to get brave and open the can of beans and tell Joey how they'll survive now. Josh asks Joey if he wanted to go home, but Joey wants to stick by him. Josh holds Joey tight, warming him.
The boys find a ramshackle farmhouse where they'd stay. It had a rusty kitchen range but was still enough to keep them warm. Josh goes outside to find some food but manages to capture a wild rooster. It takes hours for the meat to become very tender. While waiting for it, Josh & Joey take turns sipping the chicken broth. They're startled when a man and woman enter the scene. Josh lies about having a grandpa in Montana waiting for the two of them. The man, Ben (Jeff Ward), isn't happy about it. But, the woman, Josie (Sonequa Martin-Green), is friendlier and concerned about them. She asked if they'd eaten anything. Josh replies that they ate a rooster, hoping that they didn’t own it. Then, she promised to cook something up for the boys. Josh tries to refuse, but Ben told him that Josie always cooked for people that came by.
While Josie's cooking, Ben rants to the boys about Great Depression stories and how everything was going downhill. Before Ben starts speaking again, Josie asks the boys to wash up before eating dinner. As they leave, Josh hear Josie lecturing Ben. After dinner, the couple ask Josh to play the banjo while Joey sings. When Joey got tired, they decided that it's time for them to get back on the road. Ben gives them half a sack of potatoes. They get a ride from a cheerful farmer who reassures them ofgreat things for the future.
After the ride, a group of boys attacks them. As Josh gets restaint, they knock Joey out taking their extra clothes, the potatoes, and give Josh a nasty gash on his forehead.
After a few weeks, all Josh & Joey could think of is food. Josh has anything his brother found with gusto, but Josh felt sick whenever he watched his young brother eat. Josh was proud he never let Joey join him searching for food. However, Josh's ashamed for not resorting to begging. That's something that he'd let Joey do. Joey never complained about it because Joey knew that people would instead share with little kids rather than someone of Josh’s age. He realizes that he’s letting Joey face the humility of begging because Josh couldn’t.
One dark night, they ended up at a farmhouse where An old lady welcomes them inside. She washes their clothes and feeds them breakfast the following day. She asks them questions about their parents and proceeds to ask Josh to write home to his mama. Josh refused, suggesting Joey could write to them if he wanted to. The old lady advises it's better to write home because their mother could sleep better knowing they're alive.
They were in a bit of luck, as they'd find a truck driver to let them ride with him. Joey sleeps through the whole ride while Josh spoke to the driver (Mark Ruffalo). They continued on the road and ate by dusk. Josh tried to refuse, but the old lady gives them a hearty breakfast. The waitress calls the driver “Lonnie,” proving that they knew that truck driver. While waiting for their food, they told Lonnie about Howie and the other things that they encountered on the road. Lonnie asked the waitress if Josh could play the piano. They all watched Josh play the piano, astounded by the music. While they're eating, Lonnie shows a piece of paper written with the information of Pete Harris, a carnival owner. After a long while, Josh heard Lonnie speak up about why Josh should forgive his father.
As the days went by, Lonnie becomes their friend. He talks about how if Pete Harris can’t give Josh a job, they'll search for anyone who can. Every time Lonnie paid, Josh took note. However, Lonnie recommends he take care of Joey first.
While Joey and Lonnie are singing together, Josh falls asleep. He awakes to the two speaking about him. Josh heard about how fondly Joey spoke about their father. Josh's confident about one thing: He'd never extend a helping hand to his father.
It wasn’t long until they’ve reached Louisiana. One evening, they finally found Pete Harris's carnival. After roaming around the carnival, they find Pete Harris (Jean Dujardin). Lonnie speaks with him, but Pete admits that his carnival might not last long, with people suffering. Lonnie sympathizes with Pete that it wouldn’t hurt if he heard Josh play. Josh plays enthusiastically, thinking hard that Pete should give him a chance. To his amazement, Pete gives him a job for $5 a week, with meals and a place to sleep in for Josh & Joey.
Before leaving, Lonnie leaves his full name/address to Josh. He promises to be back in a couple of weeks. Josh and Joey feel sad about saying goodbye to Lonnie. After Lonnie leaves, the boys decided to rest on the hard cots provided for them.
The following day, they woke up to two noisy dwarfs. They're about to eat breakfast. One of them kept asking questions about their life and why they're there. The second dwarf, Edward C. Kensington (Peter Dinklage), reprimanded the noisy dwarf from lecturing the boys. Edward familiarizes them with some of the people. He tells them about Emily and how she’s being criticized for eating at the carnival. She's a clown performer, but she doesn't live at the carnival. She gets paid extra to feed her children, but she also gets invited by Pete. Edward continues to tell the stories of each and every performer there. Finally, Emily (Carey Mulligan) arrives and shakes hands with the boys. Emily's the most beautiful woman that Josh ever laid his eyes on.
After eating, Emily works on giving Josh a haircut. Pete asks her to do it before Josh starts working for them. His job was to play popular songs encouraging people to go inside to watch the dancers. Emily's really the star of the carnival. Even if people didn’t have money, they still decided to take their children to see Emily perform. Every time Emily went home, she would say goodbye to Josh. It was a simple thing that he enjoyed at the end of a long day.
Josh anxiously waited for Lonnie to return. Once he realized that Lonnie might have lost his job, he immediately sent over money to cover what he owed the man. By Christmastime, the brothers were eager to buy each other something. Whenever the carnival closed for the night, Josh would take long walks. Finally, Joey convinces Josh to send some money back home for Christmas.
One night, while Emily was bringing her boys back home, Josh helped her carry her youngest. As soon as the boys were in their places, Emily stopped Josh and asked if she could speak to him. She said she wished she knew a girl that’s Josh’s age so that he could've someone to hang out with. He suddenly blurted out that he wished that Emily were his age. Calmly, Emily says she's grateful for what he'd said, bidding him good night.
The following day, Emily invited the boys and Edward over to her home on Christmas Eve. The boys think of something to give Emily for Christmas. Josh decides to give her perfume instead. However, Edward was more practical with a box full of dimes instead. Emily needs the money more than she needed perfume. When they arrived at Emily’s house, she was dressed in no clown costume to hide her beauty. She hugs the boys and kisses Edward on the forehead. They find Pete Harris on the dining table, along with Emily’s boys. Josh's annoyed about how Pete spoke to Emily. He felt as if Pete thinks he owned Emily. It's an unhappy night for Josh.
The following days, Josh continues to be unhappy. He keeps to himself mostly, with Joey avoiding him most of the time. Finally, Josh lashes out at Pete and Edward by speaking with Florrie, a dancer. They'd already warned him about her, but he continued to speak to her. Unfortunately, she's the one who tells him about how Emily's Pete’s girl. He retaliates by no longer waiting for Emily to say good night.
One night, he decides to wait for her. He offers to walk her home. He suddenly asks her why she'd marry Pete Harris. She explains how Pete's there for her. Suddenly, Josh tells her to just forget himself. She tells him that it hurt her but accepts it. The following day, Joey tells Josh about how he'd hurt Emily and Edward’s feelings. Joey berates Josh on why he pushes people away. Joey sleeps at Emily's while Josh sleeps alone.
The weather during that day drives people away from the carnival. Josh walks around to think about what Joey said. Relieved, Josh returns to notice that the carnival's on fire and begins to run. He finds Joey standing with Emily, her boys, and Edward. Pete helps rescue them as the fire gains out of control. Watching how Pete was with Emily & everyone, Josh finally understood.
Following day after the fire, Pete notices that Josh seemed to want to return to Lonnie again. Pete admits that he’d like to help him, but he won’t be able to until the next six months or so. Josh also knew this and tells Pete that they'd get by. Josh accepts everything now and bids goodbye to Emily. Emily made Josh promise to write to her. Edward gave a letter to the boys and cried to himself. Josh puts this letter in his wallet.
They travel until getting a ride late in the afternoon. After the ride, Josh & Joey find a group of men cooking dinner by the railways. The group invites them to share.
They were walking along the road until a black Cadillac pulls up beside them. The driver offers them help, which they instantly took. Charley (Drake), the driver, didn’t want to talk about his job, but he's nice enough to let the boys relax inside the car. He finally admits to the boys that he's carrying gallons of hooch.
By dinnertime, they stopped at a hotel. The boys could've bid him goodbye, but Charley insisted on ordering them dinner. Charley refuses to let Josh pay. After leaving Charley, Josh looks for a place to buy new shoes for Joey. He pays the man with his twenty-dollar bill and gets accused of stealing it. The sheriff drops by and says that it's a counterfeit. The cobbler smugly offers them the shoes if they just leave the “counterfeit” bill with him. Left with no choice, Josh takes the shoes then leaves town. For the next few days, Joey keeps the two of them together, especially when Josh got sick or angry.
Reaching Nebraska, Josh's burning with fever, but Joey didn’t know. The following day, Joey lucked out getting a bread loaf. He admits to Josh that he gave half to a lady who needed it for her six kids. Josh screams at Joey to get the bread back. But, Joey remains firm, warning he won’t take it back.
Quickly, for the first time in his life, Josh strikes Joey. Joey fell down sternly, telling Josh that his own from here on. After overcoming the shock, Josh ventures out to search for Joey. He gets lost waking up in a warm bed. He's confused about where he was and overhears a girl say the name “Lonnie.” Later in that night, someone finds him on the side of the road, finding Lonnie’s name and address on him. Lonnie drove with Janey (Dafne Keen), his niece, picking him up immediately. Once he's able to, he told Lonnie about what happened between him and Joey. Lonnie promises Josh that they’d find Joey.
Any night, when Lonnie comes home, Josh would be eager to find out if Joey was found yet. Lonnie suggests that Joey must have hitchhiked. However, Josh's convinced that Joey might also be looking for him. Janey helps Josh with his dark moods, always talking to him. She asks him about a lot of things, from his music to his love for Emily. That night, after dinner, Josh and Lonnie talk about plans regarding Joey. Lonnie then talks to him about Janey. Lonnie knows that Janey's trying to impress Josh. Over the next few days, Janey starts acting like a lady.
One stormy evening, a letter from home arrives. Josh eagerly awaits for Lonnie so he can read what his mom had written, wanting her boys back. Later, while they listened to the news on the radio, describing what seemed to be Joey. Lonnie immediately puts on his coat and goes to the radio station to get more information. Finally, after hours of waiting, Lonnie returned with Joey in his arms.
Josh watched Joey fall asleep. Josh asks Lonnie how he found Joey. Apparently, a couple took him in and didn’t want to let him go. However, Joey was persistent enough to join Lonnie so he'd see his brother. Lonnie told Josh that he and Janey need to look after Joey as per a doctor’s orders. Lonnie wired their parents and Pete Harris that he had already found Joey.
When Joey woke up, he tells Josh how he returned to the shed but didn’t find Josh. So he decided to get back home inside. Joey kept thinking about how Josh needed him and made his way to Omaha, not knowing Lonnie’s last name. Joey suddenly felt the sudden urge to go home. On the third day, Mrs. Arthur, the woman who took Joey in, paid them a visit. Josh expressed his gratitude to the lady. Mrs. Arthur asks them to drop by their house once they’re well enough so she'd hear Josh play the piano.
During the following days, Josh summoned up enough courage to write back home. He also wrote letters to Edward and Emily. During the last weeks of March, Lonnie, Janey, Josh, Joey spent time together as if they're a pleased family. Josh and Joey forgot all of their loneliness because of them.
One evening, Mrs. Arthur returned and asked if she could take the three kids to her house for lunch the next day. At eleven in the morning, she picked the three up and drove them to her house. She left Josh with the piano so that he could get accustomed to it. They had a pleasant time. She promised that she’d find a job for Josh.
Within a week, she came back and told him that they got him a job at a restaurant. She had Josh fitted for a nice suit and a pair of shoes. His job at the restaurant was very fulfilling for him. The only thing that bothered him about his job was how the owner used their story as brothers to lure customers. Eventually, Joey joined Josh at the restaurant for work. They sent money to Chicago from time to time and gave the rest to Lonnie. Emily also wrote back to Josh, and she begged him to go home.
Josh had been so busy with work that he only had one day to spend with Janey. One spring night, he confessed his feelings for Janey. He promised Janey that he’d come back for her once he settled things with his parents. The next few days are confusing for Josh. He talked to Lonnie about his feelings for Janey, which he's okay with. Eventually, Josh decides to finally go home with Joey.
After a long drive back home, Josh & Joey say their farewells to everyone. Then, finally, they leave in the morning by train to Chicago. They felt weird; they're used to being outsiders. Josh almost dreaded the things that could happen once they reach home. But, slowly, as they boarded out of the coach, they see their mom, dad, and Kitty waiting eagerly for them. Finally, Josh sees his father, who, for the first time, hugs his son tightly, apologizing for everything. Josh finally looks at his father with a smile, a tear in his eye.
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