I'm going to do what this movie wouldn't do: get to the point. This is a very self-indulgent movie that takes forever to get where it's going. I know a lot of people would like this "journey is the destination" style movie, but I'm evidently not the target audience.
This movie features the acting prowess of Casey Affleck in the starring role as a criminal who is on a journey back to the free world to see his girlfriend and the daughter he never met. Well, when I say acting prowess, I mean that he has won awards, and I remember liking him in other films. This one, however, had me constantly being annoyed by his scratchy voice and slumped stature. He may have done an okay job, but I couldn't see past the annoyances to see it.
His wife, played by Rooney Mara, tends to slur her words a lot and comes across as weaker than her character really needs to be in order to raise a daughter alone in a small town. Even when her character makes strong and hard decisions, she does it in the most mouse-like way she possibly can, and she really needed to step it up a notch.
Ben Foster, who I last remember seeing in The Mechanic, has a significant enough supporting role as the possible boyfriend and peace officer who kind of wants to control Rooney and also wants her to be able to make her own decisions - which he wants to be that she comes to live with him and make lots of little babies in this small town.
This movie makes a lot of artistic decisions that confound me. The title - it is claimed - pre-dates the movie and was picked so you can take an idea of what the movie will be about into the theater with you to give you an idea of what you will see - to color your view and perception about the movie. Instead, I came away wondering why the hell they would pick that title.
The style of the movie is more interesting than the movie itself. It's shot in the style of an old Western, and I think that was one of the reasons Rooney decided to play her character the way she did - demure and submissive. It's what you would expect from the average woman in the old West.
Acting was a mixed bag
Directing was not bad
Pacing was terrible
Cinematography was good
Story was weak
2.0/5