Drilling into a fractured community
By Christy Lemire |
January 6, 2013, Sunday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
"PROMISED Land" offers an experience that's alternately amusing and frustrating, full of impassioned earnestness as well as saggy sections.
Director Gus Van Sant has the challenging task of taking the divisive, high-tech practice of "fracking" - hydraulic fracturing drilling - and trying to make it not just human but cinematic. Working from a script by co-stars Matt Damon and John Krasinski, based on a story by Dave Eggers, he succeeds in fits and starts.
The impoverished small town that's the tale's setting, a place in need of the kind of economic rejuvenation that extracting natural gas could provide, is full of folksy folks whose interactions with the main characters don't always ring true. "Promised Land" has its heart on its sleeve and its pro-environment message is quite clear, but it's in the looser and more ambiguous places that the film works.
Damon, collaborating with Van Sant for the third time as both screenwriter and actor (following "Gerry" and the Oscar-winning "Good Will Hunting"), stars as Steve Butler, a salesman on behalf of a bland behemoth of an energy corporation. Having grown up on an Iowa farm himself and seen how an economic downturn can devastate a small town, Steve is a likable everyman who seems genuinely invested in what he's selling. But he's also a pragmatist, as evidenced by the playfully cynical give-and-take he enjoys with his partner, Sue, played by a dry, sharp Frances McDormand.
Famously for his efficiency in persuading rural residents to sell their land for the drilling rights, Steve runs into an unprecedented challenge when he and Sue arrive in the depressed dairy farming community of McKinley in western Pennsylvania. Outspoken old-timer Frank (Hal Holbrook), the high school science teacher, and flashy, charismatic environmental crusader Dustin (Krasinski) dare to question the company's methods in increasingly vocal ways.
But even as Steve struggles to close the deal, he finds himself growing entrenched in the daily rhythms of this idyllically charming little nook of the heartland. Rosemarie DeWitt co-stars as a winsome grade school teacher with dismayingly half-baked romantic connections to both Steve and Dustin. The actress, and character, deserve better.
Steve and Dustin obviously function as two sides of the same coin, but their confrontations don't crackle the way they should because everyone involved is just so darn nice. But there is an appealing gray area suggested in Damon's character. For a while, we're not sure whether he's a true believer or an opportunist - that is, until some implausible plot twists make his stance forcefully, indisputably clear.
Director Gus Van Sant has the challenging task of taking the divisive, high-tech practice of "fracking" - hydraulic fracturing drilling - and trying to make it not just human but cinematic. Working from a script by co-stars Matt Damon and John Krasinski, based on a story by Dave Eggers, he succeeds in fits and starts.
The impoverished small town that's the tale's setting, a place in need of the kind of economic rejuvenation that extracting natural gas could provide, is full of folksy folks whose interactions with the main characters don't always ring true. "Promised Land" has its heart on its sleeve and its pro-environment message is quite clear, but it's in the looser and more ambiguous places that the film works.
Damon, collaborating with Van Sant for the third time as both screenwriter and actor (following "Gerry" and the Oscar-winning "Good Will Hunting"), stars as Steve Butler, a salesman on behalf of a bland behemoth of an energy corporation. Having grown up on an Iowa farm himself and seen how an economic downturn can devastate a small town, Steve is a likable everyman who seems genuinely invested in what he's selling. But he's also a pragmatist, as evidenced by the playfully cynical give-and-take he enjoys with his partner, Sue, played by a dry, sharp Frances McDormand.
Famously for his efficiency in persuading rural residents to sell their land for the drilling rights, Steve runs into an unprecedented challenge when he and Sue arrive in the depressed dairy farming community of McKinley in western Pennsylvania. Outspoken old-timer Frank (Hal Holbrook), the high school science teacher, and flashy, charismatic environmental crusader Dustin (Krasinski) dare to question the company's methods in increasingly vocal ways.
But even as Steve struggles to close the deal, he finds himself growing entrenched in the daily rhythms of this idyllically charming little nook of the heartland. Rosemarie DeWitt co-stars as a winsome grade school teacher with dismayingly half-baked romantic connections to both Steve and Dustin. The actress, and character, deserve better.
Steve and Dustin obviously function as two sides of the same coin, but their confrontations don't crackle the way they should because everyone involved is just so darn nice. But there is an appealing gray area suggested in Damon's character. For a while, we're not sure whether he's a true believer or an opportunist - that is, until some implausible plot twists make his stance forcefully, indisputably clear.
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