Rebecca Miller has written and directed another fine film that probes the consequences of the passage of time and life, finding incongruities in ideals and realities impacting everyday people. The result is a film of tenderness and dashed hopes and unconditional love between a father and daughter.
Jack Slavin (Daniel Day-Lewis) is a Scottish immigrant who mentally still lives in the 1960s, full of adoration of nature and the idealistic expectations of the Hippies reacting against a country at war with Vietnam. He and his daughter Rose (Camilla Belle) now (in 1986) live in a deserted hippie commune on an island off the East Coast of the USA. Their relationship is idyllic, living off the land, at one with nature. Jack has heart failure and worries about the fate of his isolated Rose almost as much as he loathes the inevitable encroachment of land developers such as Marty Rance (Beau Bridges) who is building houses on the precious wetlands on the opposite side of Jack's island.
Jack seeks to solve (control) problems: he invites his girlfriend Kathleen (Catherine Keener) and her two sons Rodney (Ryan McDonald) and Thaddius (Paul Dano) to enlarge his family at the old commune, and he confronts Marty with threats that he will destroy the development project. Once the extended family is formed, Rose views Jack having sex with Kathleen, decides she must 'grow up' and attempts to enter womanhood by unsuccessfully seducing Rodney and ultimately losing her virginity to Thaddius, an event she makes public by hanging her stained banner sheet on the windswept clothesline. Jack reacts in rage then anguish at his failure to provide a secure, healthy future for Rose, and in time gives in to the developers and draws Rose back to him in a final scene that is one of the most touching farewells on film.
Daniel Day-Lewis is so completely immersed in his character that he never for a moment loses our compassion. The entire cast is excellent, the pacing of this sensitive script is extraordinary, and the entire production crew (cinematography, music, editing, etc) shares the sense of commitment to Miller's direction. This is a genuinely touching film completely without the saccharine tones that could have overtaken the story. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp
Jack Slavin (Daniel Day-Lewis) is a Scottish immigrant who mentally still lives in the 1960s, full of adoration of nature and the idealistic expectations of the Hippies reacting against a country at war with Vietnam. He and his daughter Rose (Camilla Belle) now (in 1986) live in a deserted hippie commune on an island off the East Coast of the USA. Their relationship is idyllic, living off the land, at one with nature. Jack has heart failure and worries about the fate of his isolated Rose almost as much as he loathes the inevitable encroachment of land developers such as Marty Rance (Beau Bridges) who is building houses on the precious wetlands on the opposite side of Jack's island.
Jack seeks to solve (control) problems: he invites his girlfriend Kathleen (Catherine Keener) and her two sons Rodney (Ryan McDonald) and Thaddius (Paul Dano) to enlarge his family at the old commune, and he confronts Marty with threats that he will destroy the development project. Once the extended family is formed, Rose views Jack having sex with Kathleen, decides she must 'grow up' and attempts to enter womanhood by unsuccessfully seducing Rodney and ultimately losing her virginity to Thaddius, an event she makes public by hanging her stained banner sheet on the windswept clothesline. Jack reacts in rage then anguish at his failure to provide a secure, healthy future for Rose, and in time gives in to the developers and draws Rose back to him in a final scene that is one of the most touching farewells on film.
Daniel Day-Lewis is so completely immersed in his character that he never for a moment loses our compassion. The entire cast is excellent, the pacing of this sensitive script is extraordinary, and the entire production crew (cinematography, music, editing, etc) shares the sense of commitment to Miller's direction. This is a genuinely touching film completely without the saccharine tones that could have overtaken the story. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp