It was surprising that they would decide to Make Matthew's character have two valued possessions on the tiny island he was hiding on: his gun and his shirt. The famously shirtless McConaughey still managed to find opportunities to take off his shirt to show off his pecks. As he plays the title character, he is very dirty most of the time, and he spends most of the movie sitting on a very small island in the middle of a river.
In the graphic above, it would seem like the adults take center stage, but it is ALL about the children. Admittedly, one of them has an epic nickname: Neckbone. I mean, come on! That is redneck gold right there. So, the two boys find our title character on his island, befriend him, and then get caught up in Mud's horrible life and terrible decision making skills.
McConaughey does an okay job, and so do most of the other actors, but the whole pace of the movie is very slow. It's speed is dictated by the fact that we're following these kids through the complexity of their lives, and a bit too much has been happening in their lives. It makes it hard to deal with their problems when you realize that their lives are just plain miserable and pointless.
As for co-stars, Joe Don Baker was looking REALLY old in this. If it was makeup, they did a hell of a job, but I suspect life is just catching up to him. Reese Witherspoon plays a white trash slut, and she does an admirable job. It was almost as convincing as the spoiled rich girl that she played on the cruiser footage when she got pulled over. Sam Shepard plays the ... was he Mud's friend or father? I'm still not sure. Michael Shannon makes an appearance as well. With this many decent stars, it seems like they're all hoping this can be some kind of Academy Award bait.
Acting was good.
Direction was okay.
Story was slooooooooooow.
Dialogue was fairly bad.
Cinematography was not great.
1.5/5