Here are enshrined
the longing of great hearts
and noble things that tower above the tide
the magic word that winged wonder starts,
the garnered wisdom that has never died.
–Sounds a little Gerard Manley Hopkins but I honestly have no idea where it’s from. Do you?
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I feel alone.
I don’t mean i feel lonely; I mean i feel alone, the same way i feel the blanket resting on my body, or the feathers of my pillow under my head, or the tight string of my sleep pants twisted up around my waist. I feel alone as if it were an actual thing, seeping throughout this whole level like mist blanketing a field, reaching into all the hidden corners of my room and finding nothing living but me. It’s a cold sort of feeling, this.
― Beth Revis, A Million Suns
I actually had Kramer vs Kramer flashbacks during this movie — I have very vivid memories of that being the first movie that really upset me about parental treatment of children. (I was pretty young to see it then but my parents are not censors of much.)
Julianne Moore’s performance here is pretty amazing and just spot-on for what it’s supposed to be. The two young blondes who become Maisie’s caretakers (Skarsgard being one of them–yeah I’m pretty much over my obsession with him, except where Pinterest is concerned) are both fine although both come across as idiots as the movie begins and it takes a while for them to be tolerable on screen (they become moreso as they wake up to the realities of the film, I guess, which is fine, but did they really have to be quite so dumb to begin with?).
It was a well-done movie but pretty hard to watch if you are daily interacting with children who, while not necessarily mentally or physically ABUSED, are most certainly treated with varying degrees of neglect.
I mean I have often before, and certainly during this movie, pondered whether some sort of readiness test for parenting should be instituted by the state before unprotected sex is allowed. But of course in order to bring that about, the policing of sex would have to be instituted which is such a wild violation of one’s civil rights that it’s plain horrifying. But then you see a child being treated this way…
There certainly are people too self involved to parent, just as there are people too stupid to parent, and frankly the former is more horrible than the latter. The latter might learn, the former don’t care to.
From the director of Take Shelter, this is an unusual little movie that I just loved to pieces, as did my fellow viewers. By the way, we were the youngest people in the theater by about 100 years. There were numerous walkers, wheelchairs, and interestingly loud exhalations on display throughout the theater.
And yes, it has Matthew McConaughey in it, part of his whole “I do art-y movies now” like Magic Mike (which I actually thought sucked) and Killer Joe (which was compelling but horrible and do not watch it unless you want to be completely icked out).
But guess what? It also has the kid from Tree of Life and he’s even more amazing here. It reminded me/us a little bit of Beasts of the Southern Wild, except less marginal (more relatable in many ways, for me anyway) and none of the extra fantasticalness thrown in. Very down to earth and compelling (and painful) about family conflict and what makes someone your family–obviously Neckbone is as much Ellis’ family as anyone else, growing up, true love (and how DO you know it’s true) and so many other things. This was really just lovely.
Michael Shannon’s part was surprisingly small, I kept waiting for something more to happen with his character. Maybe next time!
Also: there is a character named Neckbone. Neck, for short. An adorably honest peculiar young kid named Neckbone. LOVED HIM.
Frankly, the two best things about this movie were 1) Zoe Saldana’s (false, I presume) eyelashes and 2) Chris Pine’s blue eyes.
It was entertaining enough, I guess.
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The Citizen Kane of car movies!! 2 fabulous 4 words!! Highly recommended. already made my ten best list.
This movie was not what I expected–several of the major players have very small parts.
I liked the first third and I liked the last third, but the Bradley Cooper-focused middle third didn’t really engage me at all. More Gosling, less Cooper and I would’ve liked this more.
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ACK. So much unallowed book buying.