Review of Charlie Countryman (2013) by Mason B — 13 Aug 2014

There are may reasons that, while I watched Charlie Countryman, I found it impossible to care about any of the characters onscreen or what they were doing. The biggest problem is that the entire film rests on the romance of Shia LaBeouf and Evan Rachel Wood who, despite adequate performances, have no chemistry and are miscast.

Shia LaBeouf plays the titular character, who, after his mother dies, flys to Bulgaria to have some sort of adventure. He run into Evan Rachel Wood, and enters a world of darkness and wonder he didn't expect.

LaBeouf does fine, but he's playing what's supposed to be a lost and kind soul who comes off as a nosy, awkward tool making a series of bad decisions. Meanwhile Evan Rachel Wood is playing a character whose only trait is here very exaggerated Bulgarian accent.

These are the central problems in a film with several. The film aims for a sense of wonder and discovery and joy to contrast the horror and the darkness, but it's reach far exceed's it's grasps.

None of these characters are interesting enough to have a film around, and it's metaphysical aspirations are entirely unneeded. Charlie Countryman is not a terrible film, but it is a boring and un-fufilling one.