Review of Won't Back Down (2012) by Molly M — 20 Sep 2012

I saw the movie two days ago and was not impressed. I normally love the movies Maggie Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis and Holly Hunter choose to work with; and I was excited to see a Hollywood film featuring a woman of color in a leading role. But not even this trio's acting could save the poor screenwriting. The movie just seemed fake. Gyllenhaal's character was surprisingly one-dimensional, and Holly Hunter's was a psychologically damaged beret-wearing bureaucrat who, out of nowhere, sees the err to her ways. Viola Davis is still and always will be stellar, but the movie itself seemed like it was trying too hard to impress the audience and make them believe it's political undertones.

The movie was littered with shots of poverty-affected, urban Pittsburgh and employed a lot of emotional plot twists (potential brain damage?) to keep the audience enraptured. But it just didn't do it for me. Maybe it was all the anti-union rhetoric. Or perhaps the obvious fat-phobia (why are all the villains except for Holly Hunter larger-bodied people?). Most likely, though, it's the movie's underhanded way of pretending to be "inspired by true events," when it's actually a dramatic fictionalization of events that occurred in CA years ago that did not go nearly so well. I know this is Hollywood, but I was really hoping for something better.