I was not familiar with David Gordon Green’s work, but I’ve heard good things so I decided to try this movie. It’s a nice little slice of life drama about a group of people living in a small town.
There are a few characters who have their own life and problems, but they know each other and sometimes interact. The structure feels very natural to me, we’re not systematically going from one character to another while following the plot. They each have their life, that just happens to cross each other.
But the main focus is definitely Annie and Glenn. They are divorced but have a daughter, and the father is not very stable mentally. He’s depicted like a normal person, who just had a touch time and used to drink a lot. Nothing too crazy. But as we watch more we see little signs of his mental health deteriorating, which brings to the dramatic ending of the movie.
I must say I was quite surprised how the story ended. I did not expect that at all. Looking back at the performances I guess I should have seen it coming, but I’ve seen so many mainstream movies that play it “safe” that it just gutted me.
I liked the main performances by Sam Rockwell (definitely the star of the movie) and Kate Beckinsale, who really surprised me here. In my mind she was just a pretty face, but here she shows some talent as well. Even the kids were strangely “sweet” in their relationship, I thought sooner or later some drama would happen to them.
This story went completely against my expectations, went in totally different direction than the “normal” Hollywood movie, which is what I liked about it.
I hope to be as entertained by Green’s other works.
Rating: 3.5 Stars