A good movie

Since I kept hearing good things about this flick, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, I wasn’t disappointed and I’m glad I knew very little about it beforehand which is the best way to watch any movie in my opinion. Basically, it is a heartbreaking drama and a nail-biting thriller at the same time and, even though not much really happen during the whole thing, it was quite spellbinding to watch. Indeed, in the contrary to most of the US thrillers which go for the cheap thrills without much consistency, here, the story and the characters evolved organically which was a really refreshing approach. It was the first movie directed by Jeff Nichols that I have seen so far and he seems to be one of the most interesting American directors at work nowadays and I will definitely check his other movies when I get the opportunity. Of course, Michael Shannon should get some credit as well and he is definitely something else than your usual pretty faces, an intense actor who is finally getting some recognition. As you can see, even though I really enjoyed this movie, my rating is rather low which had to do mostly with the ending. Indeed, even though the movie was obviously about mental illness, Jeff Nichols pulled a ‘Breaking the Waves’ conclusion on us as he gives a rather enigmatic last scene which migh suggest that the main character might have been some kind of visionary after all. In my opinion, it either contradicted the whole thing or I missed the whole point. Still, in spite of this conclusion, it remains a very strong feature and it is definitely worth a look.

7/10