A very good movie

I already saw this movie but, since it was a while back and since I had it on DVD, I thought I might as well check it out again. Personally, I wonder why it took Alexander Payne 7 years to finally come up with a new director effort back then but I guess the guy is not really productive. Anyway, it was definitely worth the wait, that’s for sure. Indeed, I thought it was a very good drama with a perfect pace and it was probably the best directing by Payne so far. There were also some really strong performances and some of the best written characters I have seen for a while. The beginning monolog also stroke a personal chord in the sense that my ex-wife had been really sick for about 2 years now and I had about the same internal monologs as our relationship was already pretty chaotic even before she got some health issues and even more afterwards. Of course, I didn’t went through the rest of the story myself but it was definitely a good start. In fact, many later years later, we actually got divorced so I had a totally different vibe while I was re-watching this movie. But the movie was not only about a family tragedy, it was also about the fate of an aristocratic family and what they should do with their land. That part of the story was also quite fascinating and it is quite amazing that they managed to balance such diverse topics in one movie. This movie will also always be remembered as being the breakthrough of Shailene Woodley, even if she eventually never really became the next Jennifer Lawrence as predicted by many. She was still really good here though. Anyway, to conclude, I thought it was really good and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Alexander Payne’s work.

8/10