1. Promised Land

1. Promised Land
Rated R
Released: 2012
Starring: Matt Damon, Frances McDormand, John Krasinski
Format Watched In: Theaters

Going into this movie I thought it was going to be a romance with a environmental twist with Damon and Krasinski fighting it out over a woman.  I can't entirely be blamed for this because I swear that's the movie the trailer showed me it was.  However I was pleasantly surprised  to find out I was mistaken.  Yes there is a love story to the movie, but it's more the B story than the A story.  The A story is about Damon coming into a rural town that is on it's last legs and trying to sell them the dream of Natural Gas and Krasinski as a environmentalist hell bent on stopping him.

If I'm being entirely honest here, and I should be since it's my blog, I am not entirely sure I liked this movie.  It was well acted and directed (Gus Van Sant) it's just I had a hard time following along with who I am supposed to be rooting for during the movie.  The movie does everything in it's power to tell you that Damon is the good guy, it even goes as far as to have him say "I am not a bad guy" repeatedly, but the entire time I felt like what he was doing wasn't right and that he didn't really care that he was taking advantage of these people.  Meanwhile Krasinski is trying his best to get the townsfolk to see how much damage Natural Gas drilling can be, but he's also very clearly being positioned as the antagonist for Damon as he gets the better of him at every turn and you feel for Damon.  Then there's a twist because of course there is a twist and sure Damon becomes the good guy that we keep being told he is but by that point I was so disconnected from everything happening that it was meaningless.

Like I said before the movie is well acted and directed, but the writing (Damon and Krasinski co-wrote it) just felt forced and confusing.  It was nice to see Damon back in dramatic roles after an extended break into actionland, and the supporting cast, specifically Hal Holbrook and Rosemarie DeWitt, was top notch but in the end the muddled story and confusing character directions just didn't work for me in the end.

Rating: C-