Review of At Any Price (2012) by Vera W — 13 May 2013

Bahrani is trying to paint a picture here of desperate American farmers who sacrifice their personal integrity in order to succeed. But in doing so, he also paints a picture of some pretty reckless and frivolous people who begin to resemble those crazy contestants on "Let's Make a Deal", donning penis costumes in order to be selected for the grand prize, striking their opponents over the head with hammers in the field, running up to grieving farmers at funerals to sign land deals, and jumping into small town car races thinking they can succeed in the big state-wide race for prize money.

Sadly, there's a lot of truth inherent in the idiotic behavior of the farmers in this film. (My farmer relatives behave the same way, frankly.) They fear the outside world, they fear other cultures, they break the law to make sharecropping deals in order to stay afloat, sign contracts that force them into receivership, force their kids into the family business whether they want to or not, and generally succumb to violence to keep up with the competition in cut-throat crop farming. At some point, the ridiculous things these farmers do to stay in business becomes, well... comedic. As a result, At Any Price may work better as a comedy than a drama. Let's say you sign a corporate seed contract saying you shouldn't "clean" seeds or the fines are so heavy that Monsanto can take your farm. Of course, if it's a comedy, you do it. You clean seeds to stay on top, and Monsanto figures it out by doing the simplest roadside test, and you lose the farm. That's just painfully reckless-- something you'd more likely find in a comedy.Your son hates farming and says he hates you for forcing you to do it. So, you force him to farm until he crashes his car into a tree in the middle of the field. (Wait are you farmers, or retarded?) Let's say your son hits a competitive farmer's son in the head during a brawl and the kid dies. Um... maybe call the police? Tell the police the truth? No, of course not. You're an American farmer-- bury the body, cover it up.

At this point it's like Larry, Moe and Curly working on a family farm.

Does anyone in this farm community read books? Does anyone in this farm community know how to beat the system and not get caught? Can anyone here find a farming business model that is successful without using Monsanto?

Performance-wise, I hate to say it, but does Dennis quaid have cerebral palsy? Some of his line deliveries are starting to sound labored and spastic. And casting Zac Ephron in this is just distracting. Who has a son who is an exquisitely attractive human specimen and yet everyone is completely unaware of it? So ridiculous. And the grandfather's performance in this is totally over-the-top and scene-chewing. Where's a good director when you need one?

This script needed a couple of things: 1) Make at least one character in the thing is a reader, a thinker. Someone has to infuse this script with heightened language and concepts, otherwise, it's just farmer talk. Dennis Quaid's character should provide the literary moral underpinning of their goals, but he doesn't appear bright enough to read anything. Alas, in a a two hour film, we're going to need heightened language and some literary tie-in. And please God, don't make it church. Which they did.

2) Nascar, Monsanto, Wife-cheating, murder, AND land-double dealing? What else, aliens landing? Too much-aghetti. I would keep Monsanto and the murder, ditch the father and son girl cheating thing.

3) The ending is so dark that it's a surprise-- it's a surprise change in tone that doesn't really fit the rest of the movie. If you're going to make it dark, give us a harbinger at the beginning. 4) Get Dennis Quaid to talk faster. His delivery is labored, and as a result, he lacks depth as a tragic figure.