[Editor's Note: Touching Home has been held over at the Tampa Theatre, with screenings scheduled through Sun., June 20. Why don't you skip Jonah Hex and check it out? Just sayin' …]
When I first meet Noah and Logan Miller at the Tampa Theatre, the first-time writers/directors/stars of the new Ed Harris film Touching Home are fresh off a near-death experience in an elevator at the downtown Tampa Howard Johnson. Noah Miller explains: “We’re five floors up and the elevator is bouncing like a frickin’ bungee cord, and I’m going ‘what do we do?’ And I said ‘Bro, open the door!’” Logan did just that and the pair leapt to safety as shocked hotel staff looked on. “We timed it like some sick video game,” Logan adds.
Not that the identical twin brothers are gamers. The pair grew up poor in Marin County, California, their father the town drunk who slept in his truck when he wasn’t living out of a jail cell. The boys excelled at baseball, and Logan eventually ended up in the Toronto Blue Jays organization before both brother's athletic careers petered out. Old men at 23 and lacking formal education, the twins were at a loss. A friend invited them to Los Angeles to stay for a little while, not realizing that "a few days" would soon turn into months and years.
This article appears in Jun 17-23, 2010.