Review of The United States of Leland (2003) by Nell H — 29 Jul 2007

I'm a little surprised this movie has received such a high rating average. I would have thought it would be lower. To me, the plot feels very contrived--almost as of some of Gosling's lines were taken from a spoof of the film rather than the script itself.

To me, none of the characters in the film felt like a real person--lots of emoting, much less emotion. And here's the "but": but somehow you believe everyone. Each is as natural as possible in a very unnatural realm and situation.

I'm struggling to put into words what I'm thinking, but I guess it boils down to . . . I enjoyed the performances and was very interested to find out what was going to happen next, how the characters fit together .

. . but . . . I was insulted by how hard they kept hitting me over the head with The Point. A little subtlety would have gone a long way for me in this.