A few first things first. One. What were these very fine actors thinking, appearing in this movie? All due respect to the great Horton Foote, but, honestly.... Did anyone read the script beforehand? Or was it originally good and then cut back to the shell of a story that this movie became? Two. The Southern accents of its two British leads, Colin Firth and Orlando Bloom. Much has been written and criticized about them. I am a Texan. I had no problem with either of these actors' renditions of Texas and North Carolina accents respectively. I have known north Texas guys who sounded very much like the twangy, nasally Mr. Firth. That said, Bloom carries off this requirement with much more ease, in my view. My quarrel is in the casting, or MIS-casting, of Mr. Firth in the first place. If they needed a big, tall, good-looking guy who happened to be Texan, I think maybe there are several American actors who could have filled that bill. Or, in view of the BP oil spill, he could have convincingly remained British. (Though I think this movie's filming preceded that tragedy. It also was filmed prior to Firth's triumphant roles in "The King's Speech" and I would think "A Single Man" as well.)
The other actors/actresses, who are all fine in their own right, were woefully underused.
These actors struggle mightily against a truly tepid plot. No one comes off really well because there is no there, there. Stories are truncated or non-existent, or simply have some sort of quick resolution which no part of the story leads to in the first place. I won't go into detail about the plot of this movie, since it is so thin, but I would imagine a Lifetime cable movie with unknown actors could have pulled this off equally well. In brief: Big bad company and its big bad Texas rep comes to a small town where a sweet cop, his sorta sweetheart, an old lady and her niece, and a sad city council all strive to keep their lives going in a dying town. Texan, Gus, offers rewards and happiness in return for storing, y'know, a few lil' ol' barrels of bad stuff in the old lady's warehouse, which he has leased.
I won't go into the nutty notion of grown children living with their parents and there being maybe a problem for them getting out on their own. Or the change of heart Gus gets in the blink of an eye to help wrap this thing up -- dust off hands -- the end.
I am a fan of Firth, Bloom, Tamblyn, Burstyn and Clarkson and wishing this had never come their way or that they had chosen not to appear in it. My only guess is, they felt it had the potential to be something very good and they ended up participating in something they may not want to mention in the catalog of their individual careers.
The other actors/actresses, who are all fine in their own right, were woefully underused.
These actors struggle mightily against a truly tepid plot. No one comes off really well because there is no there, there. Stories are truncated or non-existent, or simply have some sort of quick resolution which no part of the story leads to in the first place. I won't go into detail about the plot of this movie, since it is so thin, but I would imagine a Lifetime cable movie with unknown actors could have pulled this off equally well. In brief: Big bad company and its big bad Texas rep comes to a small town where a sweet cop, his sorta sweetheart, an old lady and her niece, and a sad city council all strive to keep their lives going in a dying town. Texan, Gus, offers rewards and happiness in return for storing, y'know, a few lil' ol' barrels of bad stuff in the old lady's warehouse, which he has leased.
I won't go into the nutty notion of grown children living with their parents and there being maybe a problem for them getting out on their own. Or the change of heart Gus gets in the blink of an eye to help wrap this thing up -- dust off hands -- the end.
I am a fan of Firth, Bloom, Tamblyn, Burstyn and Clarkson and wishing this had never come their way or that they had chosen not to appear in it. My only guess is, they felt it had the potential to be something very good and they ended up participating in something they may not want to mention in the catalog of their individual careers.