For those of you who aren't all that familiar with Gus Van Sant, understand the man is a phenomenal director. One of the very best! He did a film back in 2003, Elephant that still disturbs me to this day (and I highly recommend it, it will blow your mind). He was also the director of the amazing Good Will Hunting, Milk, and My Own Private Idaho, so Gus has been responsible for some great movie making. Sadly, there's always a flip side to that coin though. He was also responsible for Finding Forrester, Psycho, and To Die For, all of which were hardly decent, let alone good. In a way, he's a lot like Ang Lee, when he's on there's very few that are any better, when he's off, he's WAY off. Much as Lee's Life of Pi, Gus' Promised Land is neither amazingly good or god awful, it's just a good, solid film (with a weak ending).
Starring Matt Damon as Steve Butler, the point man for Global, a natural gas company that wants to lease the land of the farmers, Promised Land starts off really well. Steve's partner is the truly talented Frances McDormand who plays Sue Thomason, a devoted mother and true team player. Together the two of them set out to get the farmers and land owners to sign over the rights to the land that will allow Global to drill and frack for natural gas. Steve pitches for Global but crusty old Frank Yates, played by Hal Holbrook throws a monkey wrench into the whole program. He convinces those that came to hear if the town's council will allow natural gas into the town, to vote on it, something Steve and Global do their best to avoid.
As if that weren't bad enough, Dustin Noble, played by the charming John Krasinski waltzes into town as a member of Athena, an environmental organization determined to stop Steve and Global. To say he makes life way more complicated than it should be for Steve and Sue, is an understatement. He even makes a play for Steve's romantic interest, Alice, played by Rosemarie DeWitt. Dustin out thinks, out-maneuvers, and out hustles Steve at almost every turn, which of course, drives Steve up a wall. My one problem with this film, other than the cornball ending, is how Steve continually states that he is "a good man". It really gets tired after awhile, and you begin to wish how he would just shut it up with that already.
I won't give away the ending, all I'll say about it is that I thought it was weak and silly. If you pay close attention to the beginning of the film, you'll understand why I feel the way I do about the ending. You can't build one thing up only to have it so completely fail at the end. Promised L:and was written by the two main actors, Damon and Krasinski and it's a job well done. But they really should have, in my opinion, rethought the ending. The score was a nice light touch by the usually heavy handed Danny Elfman, which surprised me. The music is almost like a wisp of air, blowing past your ear unheard, which is perfect for this film, since you don't want anything distracting you from what's taking place on the screen. I would recommend Promised Land only if A, you're curious about small town life and B, you want to really know what fracking is (this kind of fracking, not the Battlestar Galactica kind of fracking). Take a look, maybe you'll like the ending, and if you do then the movie is definitely worth the price of admission. And if you go, then I'll see you at the theater.
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