Review of Promised Land (2012) by Faith Z — 12 Jan 2013

Promised Land promises a lot but follows through on nearly none of them. I like the sentiment of the movie I suppose but this movie was not nearly the vehicle for this debate it should have been. Damon, attempting a script for the first time since 2002's Gerry and 1999's Good Will Hunting (interesting to note that Gus Van Sant has filmed all three of Damon's scripts), falls completely flat with this one.

Coauthored by recent BFF John Krasinski, the two seemed to have rushed right into this one with very little expertise on the subject of fracking and even less knowledge about the intricacies of small town living.

Damon and Krasinski 's script feels more like two anthropologists trying to understand aboriginal culture or something. Some of their obviously stereotypical lines are at points laughable. Their grasp of the fracking issue is not displayed in the movie either, as their script oversimplifies the process and key issues involved with fracking to disastrous consequences; all this before an 11th hour twist that absolves the film of its lack of honest debate and renders the whole film juvenile at best.

I admire the subject matter but certainly the filmmakers could have done better than this.