The audience gets to experience men
exploring their relationships and desires. I think all four of the starring actors
bring their a-game to their characters, and we get a sense of depth,
vulnerability and commonality. The introduction or first 15 minutes of
this film is a fast-paced and intensifying set-up, but then it slows
down to allow this man-empowerment story to unfold.
I'm going to discuss a couple of
scenes. If you are squeamish about spiders or spoilers, stop reading
here.
Discussing exploring emotions often
happens right before bed, so there are several bedroll scenes showing
Sisters brothers sleeping out in the open. In one of them a spider crawls into
poor Eli's mouth. He does not wake up. He does not pass go. He
collects a fever, swelling and eventually barfs up blood and baby
spiders. John C. Reilly brings about a sense of
brooding vulnerability as Eli Sisters, who only desires to see the
schoolteacher he left behind somewhere, go home and be treated
fairly. I'm assuming the spider was a vehicle
to establish Eli's vulnerability, but also Charlie's loyalty to him
despite their constant bickering. That's great and all, but the
spider bit was gross.
Although there was interesting
relationship development between the two pairs of men, the most
touching of scene was between Eli and Warm who, considering the
circumstances of them coming together and the brevity of their
relationship, were able to sit and have a profound and enlightening
exchange.
There was a random point where I was
jarred out of the story: All of a sudden, Joaquin Phoenix' character
is telling a story and he appears to be in a darkened room with a
natural-light spotlight. It is quite weird.
Also, production values were notably
good. The soundtrack, which I spent more time noticing the second
time I watched this movie, was dynamic and made each scene.
This movie ended in bittersweet
contentment. It was good and I'd be happy to watch this again and
again. I give it four stars**** for the great acting, the compelling
story and well done art production. It definitely falls on the
Masterpiece end of the scale.
