Synopsis
In Theaters Now
Going for Two
The first week of junior high starts off with a mystery for 12-year-old Jimmy Moriarty in Going for Two, a heartwarming coming-of-age comedy set in football-mad 1980s Omaha. Jimmy (Matthew Lamb) seems to have lost a vital part of his anatomy and doesn’t know where to find it. After doing some research, he discovers he has an undescended testicle, which requires a surgery that his widowed mom (Julianne Hough) wouldn’t be able to afford – even if he could find a way to tell her.
Confused and embarrassed, he confesses his dilemma to his best friend, fiery Mary Francis “Frankie” Fitzpatrick (Cora Craver). With everyone around them obsessed with the University of Nebraska’s Cornhuskers football team’s quest to win the Big Eight championship for the second year in a row, they will need to go it alone.
Jimmy decides to “adopt” the Cornhuskers’ legendary coach Tom Osborne as his mentor, facing each new challenge by asking himself, “What would Coach do?” He and Frankie embrace the coach’s famous doctrine of self-reliance and perseverance by launching a series of creative (and potentially illegal) schemes to raise the money he so desperately needs — with hilarious results.
Written and directed by Omaha native and long-time Cornhuskers fan Kathleen Welch Markel, Going for Two is a joyful celebration of friendship, resilience, courage and the ability to sacrifice for the greater good, as well as a historic season for Nebraska’s beloved gridiron gladiators.
Going for Two stars Julianne Hough (Rock of Ages, Safe Haven), Matthew Lamb (“High Potential,” “Only Murders in the Building”), Cora Craver, Holly J. Barrett (“Life in Pieces”), Evan Todd (4th Man Out, “Jane the Virgin”), Victoria Blade (“Brockmire,” Merv) and Monnae Michaell (“The Defenders,” “American Dreams”). Producers are Dana Altman (Lovely, Still) and David Levy (A Prairie Home Companion, Gosford Park). Executive producers are Barbara Weitz and Tom & Kim Dinsdale. Co-producer is Tammy Blossom.
Director of photography is Robert Reed Altman (“Dynasty,” “Bones”). Production designer is Stephen Altman (Gosford Park, Ray). Costume designer is Lynette Meyer (The Kings of Summer, Gerald’s Game). The film is edited by Douglas Crise (Babel, Birdman). Composer is Simon Franglen (Avatar: Fire and Ash, The Magnificent Seven). Casting by Susanne Scheel (A House of Dynamite, Past Lives).