Review of Escanaba in da Moonlight (2001) by Matt H — 02 Apr 2011

I have to begin this review by providing full disclosure. I was raised in the city of Escanaba. I am proud to be a Yooper and that is bound to make me more critical than most about this film. Some of the old-timers in Escanaba have an accent that reflects their Finnish or Sweedish heritage. It also tends to show that they are not well schooled in English grammar. Deer hunting is part of the culture and it dates back to when venison was an important supplement to the family food stores for the long winters in this generally depressed rural area. Bringing home a buck was a rite of passage into manhood. It meant that you were a skilled outdoorsman and provider.

Jeff Daniels uses these basic pieces of Upper Penninsula background as the basis for a story about a man who is embarassed because he is about to become the oldest hunter in the history of his family to have never killed a buck. For me, the problem arises when Daniels tries to get extra mileage out of each of these details from the accent which he develops into a general ignorance in his characters to the hunting traditions of deer camp that become weird encounters with the super natural.

The whole movie is guy humor to be sure. My 14-year-old son found much of it to be funny. Daniels creates a series of bits where excessive beer drinking, getting doused in urine and farting are the punch lines. He went low brow when he could have taken a smarter approach to the humor that would have developed around the lead character's buckless situation more. My guess is that some guys out there with an understanding of deer camp antics will find this movie entertaining. I was not one of them.