Sweet Land was like watching paint dry – only not as interesting because there were no fumes to induce halloaecinagenic visions. I spent the first half waiting to be interested, to be gripped by immigrant tales of overcoming adversity and prejudice to triumph in a grand, painterly Mid West landscape. I was urging some gritty undercurrent to take me away into a magical filmic land, but instead I was left gagging to get out of there, and had I not been reviewing I would have fled the theatre.
The second half I spent thinking about everything but the film…was it too late to get Big Day Out tickets, what was I doing for new years, was that my stomach grumbling? I was vaguely interested to see if the main characters had sex – not even that amounted to anything. No outline beneath the starched cotton sheets, no moan or gasp, nor a dramatic piece of classical music set to some wild geese humping. Just a fade to black – yawn yawn. I was not after porn or anything – just some human interaction.
Elizabeth Reaser, the leading lady had a pretty face and you could see that she probably is a very good actor, but seemed completely wasted in this role. Things looked promising early on when she got feisty about not staying with her betrothed and there were a few other glimmers of rebellion, but for the most part, this German mail order bride was two dimensional and it was difficult to cultivate any kind of empathy when there was a stark absence of complexity.
Tim Guinee, the leading man had the same look of angst and determination on his face for the bulk of the movie. Yes he was the strong silent type, yes he was humble and mild mannered, and yes it seemed as though they came to love each other by virtue of harvesting the fields together, but it appears as if neither the scriptwriter nor the director had ever heard of character development. The virtually incoherent present day book endings suggested some kind of deep undying love, but this was certainly not portrayed convincingly in the main story, so left me feeling somewhat baffled.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for the independent movie makers. I don’t want to see the same old blockbusters churned out by the big studios again and again, but I’m also pretty keen on a well told tale, a story arc, some twists and turns and a hook that makes me want to keep watching. This film had none of those things. It was painfully dull and non-eventful. Recommended only as an anecdote for insomnia.
