United States Of Leland
Filed Under: Film, Reviews | Article Tags : DVD review
By: The Dweeb
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There seems to be a trend coming out of the Sundance film festival, mainly two independent films that deal with stories of troubled youth. United States Of Leland follows a similar pattern to the movie Thirteen, both films made their debut last year. Both carry similar stories, but each with a different approach. Thirteen tended to focus more on the shocking behavior of the moment, while in this film, the writer takes a more philosophical approach to a horrible act committed for no reason. I think in either case the filmmakers are trying to answer the question as to why kids do what they do. The answer is simple, because they can. That’s exactly what Leland (Ryan Gosling) was trying to get across.
On the surface, not much happens in this film. We spend most of it moving from one character story arc to the next, never really coming full circle with them. What there is of a plot is slowly unspooled, only to end up in a muddled mess. Too much talking, not enough movement is this films primary weakness. Because there are so many characters, we don’t get to spend enough time with each of them and their myriad problems and we are left holding the bag at the end. There is no payoff. A movie like this, in order to not become an epic 8 hour film, should have instead focused more on a couple of main characters and not circled the entire camp trying to examine everyone’s problems that didn’t have that much to do with the main character Leland in the first place.
The strongest portion that could have been was the father/son relationship, which was the most interesting. Albert Fiztgerald, Leland’s father, was present but was he really there just for show? We see him most of the time drinking in a hotel bar, some kind of father son interaction would have been nice. After all that was revealed with his past relationship with his son Leland, we don’t get to delve too far into the reasons behind it. Kevin Spacey is a talent that may have been wasted, his screen time was way too short.
The main character of Leland is excellently played by Ryan Gosling. This was probably a difficult role to pull off but he did very nicely by maintaining an even tone throughout the entire film. Rarely do we get to see much emotion, he goes about his life muttering almost everything. Leland is almost Forrest Gumpish, at least at first I thought that’s what he was trying to be. He makes all sorts of little observations and makes his opinions known, if he has any, without regard for the other person. He seemed numb to the world, and even knowing that he killed someone didn’t really affect him. It was difficult to pin him down, which is what everyone was trying to do. Show some remorse will ya?!
One other actor of note is Chris Klein who plays Allen, the live in boyfriend (which I thought was kind of strange) of Julie (Michelle Williams). It was odd seeing him in here, because I am more used to seeing him play the All American Jock from the American Pie series. Nice to see him try and branch out into a more dramatic role. But unfortunately I will always peg him as Oz, so I had a hard time seeing him as a ‘bad boy’. He may never shake off that stigma, at least to me anyway.
So, here we have this serious little film, full of all kinds of characters and various problems, and nothing ever seems to get solved, just a lot of talk. Not much movement happens, and just when you think the film is going somewhere, it doesn’t. I thought the ending was completely ridiculous and a cheap cop out on the writers part to end this movie. At least it ended, but it didn’t really finish the story. I guess Matthew Ryan Hoge decided that it was okay to leave the audience holding the bag.
The technical quality of the DVD is just average. The film isn’t always really clear, and the sound is just OK. I did like the sound track, very unusual to use a lot of music from the same artist, Frank Black in this case. There is only the standard trailer as an extra included, so its a very lightweight DVD. I was a bit disappointed with the end result.
Reviewer’s Opinion: BORROW IT!!
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