Review of The United States of Leland (2003) by Adam M — 15 Nov 2008

Amazing. Life is more than the sum of its parts. A great movie on perspective. It all depends on which eye you look from. I really connected with this movie. Amazing character development.

Maybe we just need the bad stuff to remind us of the good stuff.

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Saw it again today. It's even better than I remembered.

â??I want you to say that youâ??re always going to be there.â?? - Becky.

â??But sometimes Iâ??m somewhere else.â?? â?? Leland.

â??Just tell me that everythingâ??s going to be okay.â?? â?? Becky.

â??You really canâ??t make sure everythingâ??s okay.â?? â?? Leland.

â??I know, but sometimes you say things that arenâ??t totally true but you say them anyways â??cause you want it to be true. You know? Maybe thatâ??s good enough. Just tell me everythingâ??s going to be okay. I want you to whisper it in my ear softly.â?? â?? Becky.

â??Everythingâ??s going to be okay.â?? - Leland.

"If you have to wake me up in the middle of the night to tell me I don't have anything to worry about, it kind of makes it seem I do have something to worry about." - Leland.

"I wanted to see you 'cause you're so good to me." - Becky.

"And that's not enough." - Leland.

"Should I yell at you? Scream at you? Hit you? Is that how I show you it matters? If I hit you it matters? I love you. What else can I say? Nothing I say is going to change anything." - Leland.

"The electricity wasn't in her eyes anymore. Her eyes were still reflecting what was there but now it was the sadness. I started to see it everywhere... I saw it in Ryan worse than anybody." - Leland.

"Maybe somewhere in all of this there's a reason. Maybe somewhere in all of this there's a why. Maybe somewhere there's that thing that lets you tie it all up with that neat bow and burry it in the backyard. But nothing, not getting angry, not prayers, not tears, nothing can make something that happened unhappen." - Leland.

"The worst part is knowing that there is good in people. Mostly it stays down deep and buried. Maybe we don't have God because we're scared of the bad stuff. Maybe we're really scared of the good stuff. 'Cause if there's no God, that means it's inside of us and we could be good all the time if we wanted. So when we do bad things it'd be because we want to or because we have to, or maybe we just need the bad stuff to remind us about the good stuff in the first place." - Leland.

There is so much good about this movie. It's not just the acting, dialogue, or cinematography. This movie has excelled in all of those areas, but there is something much deeper and better.