In 2011’s Turning Back (also known as The Whisper Home), Stephen Patterson (played by Jerry Eisinger) is a youth minister and teacher who is surprised when he’s told that his state representative is moving up to the senate and that he’s been selected to run for her old seat. He’s assured that he shouldn’t have any trouble winning either the primary or the election. Sure, there was a city councilwoman who was approached first, but she has no interest in running for the seat… or, at least, she doesn’t until after Stephen has declared his candidacy.

It’s not just city councilwomen that Stephen has to worry about. There’s also his brother, Dave (Randy Vaughn). While Stephen stayed in his hometown and went out of his way to always be the good and responsible son, Dave decided to pursue a career as an actor. He asked for all of the money that had been saved for his college fund and then he hopped on a bus to Los Angeles. Dave didn’t find much success as an actor, but he did manage to develop a heroin addiction. Dave finally managed to clean himself up and he worked up the courage to return home. Of course, he returns on the exact day that Stephen is starting his political campaign…

As you may have guessed, this movie is based on the parable of the prodigal son, with Stephen getting jealous over the big deal that his father is making over Dave’s return. Stephen finds himself growing more and more irritated with Dave, especially after he sees Dave hanging around in the “bad side of town.” When Stephen shames Dave into leaving his father’s house, Stephen is forced to consider the answer to the question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

It’s honestly not a bad film. The low budget is obvious and I could have done with a little less of the two criminals who are searching for Dave, but the parable of the prodigal son is definitely good source material and the film does an adequate job retelling the story for modern times. For the most part, the acting is heartfelt and the film’s message sincere.

That said, I have to admit that I found the political element of the film to be the most interesting part of the story. It’s not often that you see movies about people running for the state legislature. In both real life and the movies, the state house tends to get ignored. And yet, some of the most interesting political races are the ones for the state legislature. I remember, back in 2020, all of the Democratic State House candidates in Texas were running ads showing them at protests and calling for police reform. Then, three weeks before the election, all of their commercials suddenly changed and they started bragging about how much they loved the police. The guy running in my district spent months wearing a Defund the Police sweatshirt just to suddenly start mailing out flyers of himself posing with uniformed police officers. Never before had I seen such a blatant case of polling in action. Turning Back captures the feel of running for an office that most people tend to forget about. Stephen is assured that getting elected will be easy, but then, once he starts campaigning, he discovers how few people want to talk about the State House.

Who knows? If I ever get tired of this gig, maybe I’ll run for the State House. Apparently, anyone can get elected!