The film was written by Dan Wakefield, based on his 1970 novel and stars Jeremy Davies, Ben Affleck, Rachel Weisz, Amy Locane and Rose McGowan.

[2] Two young men return home to Indianapolis after serving time in the Army during the Korean War and search for love and fulfillment in middle America during the conservative 1950s.

[citation needed] Stephen Holden of The New York Times did not care for the film, especially Pellington's direction: "When a filmmaker feels compelled to pump up a story through caricature and expressionistic visual tricks, it's usually a sign of distrust in the inherent drama of the material.

In Going All the Way, a flashy movie adaptation of Dan Wakefield's popular 1970 novel about growing up in the heartland in the repressed 1950s, Mark Pellington, a director from the world of music video, has inflated a realistic memoir into a garish, hyperkinetic social satire.

The consensus summarizes: "Its themes may feel overly familiar, but Going All the Way is set apart from other period coming-of-age films by the strength of its performances.