Mud (2012)

4/5

Mud is essentially a coming-of-age tale hidden within a character study wrapped in a crime thriller. One fateful morning, Ellis (Sheridan) and Neckbone (Lofland) meet a mysterious stranger with crosses under his boots and a gun tucked into his pants who calls himself Mud (McConaughey). Ellis cautiously helps Mud get food and supplies so that he can flee the people chasing him, but soon finds himself getting in way over his head. As the danger mounts and he gets deeper and deeper into trouble, Ellis discovers that Mud may not be who he thinks he is.

Mud is a uniquely American movie, although not because of its setting or vernacular. It projects universal ideas, but does it with an American ethos and sensibility: the loneliness of rejection, the guilt of parents' divorce, the hurt of being lied to. It echoes an honesty and authenticity that is rare in modern film, but it's ultimately unsatisfying. The resolution at the end, while exciting and stimulating, feels a little barebones. It supplants emotional truth with a gunfight, it forgoes maturation and change for a protection borne of necessity, and it wraps up way too many threads into what ends up being one very eventful night for our protagonist. But it tries so hard to be something so good that it is hard not to give it credit. It's a wonderful film with big ideas that doesn't quite meet its own lofty ambitions.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1935179/

The Notebook (2004)

3/5

Before I start this review, I should note that there were certain distractions that took my attention away from the movie for several minutes at a time. Thus, it may be an unfair assessment. However, I remain confident in my rating within plus or minus 0.5 stars, which I don't use anyway. With that in mind, let us begin with the review.

The Notebook is a rather simple boy meets girl tearjerker love story. The title refers to a notebook detailing how the couple met and fell in love. Now a grandfather, the man reads it to his Alzheimer-stricken wife to help her get back the memories the disease stole from her. It's a tender premise, at risk of being filled with saccharine sentimentality and overwrought melodrama. For the most part, it manages to avoid the sappiness associated with its cliched and tired story, and instead infuses it with just the right amount of emotion. This is in large part due to the acting by the two leads (Gosling and McAdams), whose performances allow us to feel empathy instead of resentment for the cocky boy and rich girl who find true love in each other. As far as the story and acting goes, this is about as good a film as any other romance.

Technically, the film is about the same as your typical romantic fare. The painterly compositions could be quite stunning, but the overuse of slo-mo was a bit excessive. The simple editing served the story well, with some efficiently-cut scenes and some unnecessary ones. The dialogue, what I heard of it, wasn't particularly poetic or cheesy. All in all, this was a fairly average romance with a few good qualities and a few bad qualities. If it seems like this is your type of movie, you'll probably enjoy it. But it won't change anybody's mind about the genre.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0332280/