Let’s say you’re wondering what “Ordinary People” would be like if it took place on a farm in Montana instead of some WASP enclave in Connecticut (let’s just say, because we know you’re not). Well, your pretend prayers have been answered with “The Stone Boy” (1984). Brother dies accidentally, other brother feels survivor guilt, everybody else goes batshit crazy. Except grandpa (Wilford Brimley). He’s so even-keeled, he could look death in the face and sell it a reverse mortgage. Anyway, it’s an interesting film in that it portrays an adolescent with PTSD before we knew what those letters stood for.
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By the time he made “High Road to China” in 1983, Tom Selleck was a TV star. The romantic adventure film set in the 1920s appears to be a test to see if he could do the Indiana Jones thing like Harrison Ford (Selleck was allegedly offered “Raiders of the Lost Ark” before Ford). “High Road” isn’t any less coherent than “Raiders,” but the chemistry between Selleck and another TV person, Bess Armstrong, is awful (and there’s too much yelling). Interestingly, Selleck’s relationship with his trusty mechanic, played by Jack Weston, is more honest as a demonstration of masculine love.
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