At it's heart this is just a simple tale of star-crossed lovers given a new twist, and depending on it's actors to pull you into the movie. Luckily for all of us the managed to get two incredible actors in the lead roles.
The performance of Jeremy Renner in this movie is incredible, bringing an innocent charm to a very misguided neo-nazi called Ned. Even when he's spouting racial epithets towards Rachael (Gabrielle Union in a terrific part) early in the film it comes through in the performance that he's interested in her rather than hateful towards her, but just doesn't know how else he should behave. It's a difficult thing to describe, and deserves to be seen. Gabrielle Union is particularly good in some of these early scenes.
There are some incredibly funny moments in the movie with a number of them purely visual plays on the happy couple walking around together. One of my favourite comedic scenes takes place in the hospital where Ned tells Rachael about what he'd like to do once the great racial war has split America into quadrants. It's in moments like these where you really see Ned for what he is - lonely, and desperate for human connections.
While the ending of the movie may be no great surprise, the final scene with Ned is an uplifting and touching moment of comic genius.
Seeing this at the Edinburgh Film Festival we were lucky enough to see a Q&A with the Director Van Fischer, Jeremy Renner, and one of the producers, Mark Borman. The movie does not have a distribution deal yet, and Mark Borman believes most of that is that distributors aren't sure how to market the movie. It's an understandably difficult sell, but one I hope some brave distributor will run with.
I look forward to the release on DVD.
The performance of Jeremy Renner in this movie is incredible, bringing an innocent charm to a very misguided neo-nazi called Ned. Even when he's spouting racial epithets towards Rachael (Gabrielle Union in a terrific part) early in the film it comes through in the performance that he's interested in her rather than hateful towards her, but just doesn't know how else he should behave. It's a difficult thing to describe, and deserves to be seen. Gabrielle Union is particularly good in some of these early scenes.
There are some incredibly funny moments in the movie with a number of them purely visual plays on the happy couple walking around together. One of my favourite comedic scenes takes place in the hospital where Ned tells Rachael about what he'd like to do once the great racial war has split America into quadrants. It's in moments like these where you really see Ned for what he is - lonely, and desperate for human connections.
While the ending of the movie may be no great surprise, the final scene with Ned is an uplifting and touching moment of comic genius.
Seeing this at the Edinburgh Film Festival we were lucky enough to see a Q&A with the Director Van Fischer, Jeremy Renner, and one of the producers, Mark Borman. The movie does not have a distribution deal yet, and Mark Borman believes most of that is that distributors aren't sure how to market the movie. It's an understandably difficult sell, but one I hope some brave distributor will run with.
I look forward to the release on DVD.