Leaves of Grass (Blu-ray) (2009) (Region 2) (Import)

Bill Kincaid (Edward Norton) is the American Philosophical Journal's "New Face of Classical Thought", and about to land his own institute at the prestigious Ivy League Brown University. The movie opens at the close of one of his lectures:

"... the balance needed for a happy life is illusory. And as soon as in our gorgeously flawed human way we think that we've attained it we're pretending divinity and we're gonna crash."

No sooner is the philosophical seed for Leaves of Grass sown, than we're whisked to some truck-stop where Brady Kincaid (Edward Norton) is spelling out his own philosophical bent: "We don't deal in crystal meth ..." he tells the motley-crew squeezed round the plastic table, for this is the guy whose IQ is higher than his brother's, and has directed it towards building the "Taj Mahal to hydroponics", resulting in the best marijuana in Oklahoma.

The twins' mother (Susan Sarandon) has checked herself into some kind of retirement home, and wonders aloud to Brady if Bill will ever come back to see them again: "I think it's gonna take one of us dyin' to get him to come back down here...." Needless to say, Bill finds himself drawn back home, wrenched from his life of books, into a world he's spent the last 12 years escaping from.

Edward Norton is possibly perfect - long may he reign thus as brilliant and underrated. Few actors can boast such versatility, and pull it off so that the whole "twin thing" rises above being a gimmick. Backup is solid in the forms of Sarandon, drug baron Richard Dreyfuss, and director Tim Blake Nelson himself playing Brady's best pal Bolger. Keri Russell is bright (and underused!) as the would-be poet, cat-fish wrestler, love-interest, who recites Walt Whitman's "unashamed passion ... without definable restriction" that so seductively counters the discipline of Bill's existence.

The movie has, without doubt, every element of a cult classic in the making: superb acting; quirky plot; off-kilter characters; it should have been one of those movies that slips under the radar and gathers a post-cinema momentum by word of mouth. But, perhaps it doesn't quite know what it wants to be, unfavourable comparisons have been made with the Coen Brothers' style, and the movie's abrupt shifts in tone could be where the problem lies. The dark comedy of the first half is suddenly strongly violent in a way that throws the film out of balance, even as it sets up a surprising (and redeeming?) pathos.

Norton fans won't need any incentive to buy this movie, and those who like something a little off-the-beaten-track might just be charmed (as this reviewer has been) by this erratic offering.

Edward Norton has produced some first class performances, starting with his debut alongside Richard Gere in the 1990's, but, for me, this is the finest to date from this under-acclaimed actor. Here, he plays both of two idential twins who could hardly be more different in character: one, a narcotic lab-running country lad from rural Oklahoma, the other a philosophy professor at Harvard. If the portrayal of both is just a tiny bit cliched, it's as near as dammit that you're going to get in 1.5 hours on the big screen, and what really matters to me is that he plays both roles equally perfectly (his portrayal of the country boy is often brilliantly hilarious). Often the two are together facing each other and arguing and fighting, so it's obviously shot seperately, but excellent direction/production makes it work just right. It must be very hard to do well, dialoguing with someone who isn't there, but Norton does it brilliantly and in my world, this achievement alone would get him the oscar (but...won't happen). The story is well told as well: no need for me to ruin it for you, but Norton's accomplishment is, to my taste, a career-best thus far.

Great cast, good acting. Edward Norton handles the twin brother roles very convincingly.

And now the plot :-(

Well I think they were aiming for the sort of film Fargo was (Desperate and not very bright people descend into disaster unexpectedly through foolish choices). Leaves of Grass however comes across as... well lets face it they lost the plot. They tried for half hearted comedy/romance then skewed off abruptly into trying to shock the audience with unexpected graphic violence. Unlike Fargo though, there is no audience belief in the desperation or foolishness of the characters - the motivation for what occurs in Fargo. Leaves of Grass characters are in fact promoted as being ultra intelligent and pretty laid back. A brutal murder is unexpectedly revealed to some of the innocent bystander characters and its met with the same indifference as being told tea will be 5 minutes late, even though the knowledge immediately implicates all of them in a murder in a death penalty state. Its just not convincing, nor is it successful as comedy in any form. Edward Nortons character keeps saying things like 'this is not real' which is what I as the audience was also thinking, but for far different reasons.

The plot has no inherent tension, so instead of laughing at comedy attempts or being shocked by sudden violence you just end up wondering at the incompetence of the directing/plot while the story unfolds and flaps weakly about in front of you. They tried for a romance that had no tension either so there was not even that subplot to fall back on. I am sure it all looked better on the screenwriters first draft, I certainly hope so or whoever bought it was nuts.

I started to watch this film, got bored after 25 minutes or so and decided to finish it the next night. The next night I had another try and eventually got so bored so stopped the machine so I never saw the very end which is not like me at all. I am actually going to put this film in the rubbish bin as it feels like ripping someone off if I give it to a charity shop to resell.

Yes, it was that bad.

What a waste of an excellent cast.

I bought it from SourceMediaUK via Amazon and it arrived with 'Rental copy' all across the cover, so just as well it was not bought to be a gift, what with the packaging and the plot!