Review of The Animal Kingdom

This movie had some good ideas, as others have pointed out, but the people behind it didn't really seem to understand the difference between plays and movies. Plays are "allowed" to be a bit talkier than movies since the actors doing the talking are in the same space breathing the same air as the audience. On the other hand scene breaks and multiple short scenes aren't nearly as disruptive in movies as in plays, so for God's sake use them! For example, after the opening shot of the printing press we never see the place again. Result: we don't care about it nearly as much as the characters do.

Also, the "villain" of the piece does some emotionally abusive stuff off screen, but the "hero" is a bit of a jerk on screen. Result: while watching the movie I ended up rooting for the wrong person at the end.

And this is probably more of a writing and acting problem than a cinematography problem but the relationships are so underdeveloped that Cecelia and Daisy running off together would almost make as much sense as what actually happens.

All in all, this movie is ripe for a remake by someone who actually knows what a movie is. And since it's in the public domain pretty much anyone can take a shot at it. Otherwise just read the plot summery off Wikipedia. It has all the interesting twists without any static talking scenes.