Extremely well-acted for the most part. Just to give you an idea, John Cusack gives the worst performance, and it's not all that bad. And the story idea is great. Fantastic even. I could see a great movie being made out of the narrative flow of the underlying plot. I could have gone without the useless narrator, but fortunately after the first 10 minutes or so, that doesn't make much of a nuisance of itself.
But hoo-boy what a terrible terrible execution of a good idea. As unpleasant a film as you will ever experience, but worse than that, it's pointlessly unpleasant.
"Boy, the swamps sure are a terrible place, look at how terrible they are. Ha, ha. It's so terrible. And The South, what a messed up place that was in the 60s and 70s. Ha, Ha. Look at these people and be horrified."
Absolutely worthless sentimentality drags this movie down at its core and every last ounce of humanity and dimension is wrung out of the characters to serve this sentiment. And to make matters worse, the focus of the narrative is all over the place. I'm sure many of these actors thought they were making an important movie at the time, and they seemed to put something extra into it. It's palpable how much they want to believe in it. Sadly, it was not worth the effort.
But hoo-boy what a terrible terrible execution of a good idea. As unpleasant a film as you will ever experience, but worse than that, it's pointlessly unpleasant.
"Boy, the swamps sure are a terrible place, look at how terrible they are. Ha, ha. It's so terrible. And The South, what a messed up place that was in the 60s and 70s. Ha, Ha. Look at these people and be horrified."
Absolutely worthless sentimentality drags this movie down at its core and every last ounce of humanity and dimension is wrung out of the characters to serve this sentiment. And to make matters worse, the focus of the narrative is all over the place. I'm sure many of these actors thought they were making an important movie at the time, and they seemed to put something extra into it. It's palpable how much they want to believe in it. Sadly, it was not worth the effort.