Review of Ain't Them Bodies Saints (2013) by Douglas L — 12 Aug 2014

There is something here in this film that is developed and carries some weight. The emotions that are spread out from the story shine through cracks and take some effect. The acting of Casey Affleck as Bob and Rooney Mara as Ruth is genuine throughout a great portion of the film. However I did feel that as the story precedes the story unwinds in ways that are relatively predictable causing the viewer to be pulled out and away from the emotional connection the story has been building. Even as we get to know the character of Bob as a loving and determined man, even naive, we find he is not an intelligent man and that too is fine, the story does not build a dynamic strong enough as the material could.

This film is not a bad one by any means as its production teams did excellent work and the editing is smooth and absorbing. The music I felt was also very beautiful and did well to set a tone that complimented the high contrast sepia tone color pallet. The story also is not a bad one though it suffers in the subplots and the under development of certain moments and characters which keeps the film from being great. Structurally moments could have been reconstructed to be more gripping. I would be interested in seeing more of what this writer director David Lowery can do.