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    American Pastoral

    Reviewed by
    adamwatchesmovies@

    I don’t get it. I went into “American Pastoral” expecting a great film, I saw what I thought was a good one… but nobody seems to agree with me. It’s perfect, I'll admit that. For example, I think you can tell that this star Ewan McGregor’s first try at directing, but there’s a lot of good stuff here.

    Based on the novel by Philip Roth, the film is set primarily during the Vietnam war. High school overachiever Seymour “Swede” Levov (Ewan McGregor) is married to his high school sweetheart and beauty queen girlfriend Dawn Dwyer (Jennifer Connelly) When their daughter Meredith (Dakota Fanning) begins acting up and becoming increasingly vocal about everything that's wrong with the country, they become slightly alarmed. When a local post office is blown up and a man killed, Meredith disappears and her parents are left struggling to pick up the pieces of their formerly perfect life.

    Even before looking into the behind-the-scenes of this film, there were a few technical aspects that didn’t sit quite right with me. For example, the film is told in flashback from the point of a view of an admirer of Swede's and I don't think it's necessary. I suspect that in a book it could’ve worked, but here… I don’t know. Swede is so overwhelmingly the main character that it seems odd to have someone else tell his story. This brings me to my second criticism. The screen time dedicated to Swede is so abundant that some of the other prominent actors and actresses very much fall by the wayside. I hope that Ewan McGregor, taking the director's reigns for the first time here, continues to make films. Ultimately I believe this is a good one but he needs to learn to let go, to become more confident in his fellow players and relinquish the spotlight a little.

    What I like about this film is that it tackles a subject I’ve been curious about for a long time. When do you decide to let go, and when do you decide to hold on? Let’s say that Meredith “Merry” Levov did blow up the post office. As a parent, what do you do? Disown her? Hold onto the idea that she’s just an innocent little girl who could never have done such a thing? It's not an easy question and making the wrong choice could have devastating consequences on your life, as this film demonstrates. There are many points during this story where I was getting all torn up inside. Dawn and Swede’s lives crumble but it’s as if they don’t even realize how far they’ve fallen. I wanted to scream “Stop it! Just forget about your daughter, if you don’t, it’ll mean the death of you! ” As you witness their descent, I found that the film became delightfully twisted and emotionally complex.

    "American Pastoral" contains plenty of morally ambiguous developments and several hard-hitting reveals to keep you intrigued, but there’s a lot of good stuff here. I really enjoyed Dakota Fanning's performance. I didn’t recognize her at all. I thought Jennifer Connelly did well in her part, as does McGregor. As a period piece “American Pastoral” is convincing and well constructed. I criticized the direction earlier, but there are some scenes here and there, a particular meltdown courtesy of Connelly that I think is very well handled. It’s elegant and disturbing at the same time.

    Maybe “American Pastoral” hit a special note with me. Not that I’d ever like to be in the position where I have to defend a child or decide whether to abandon them or not, but the idea is very interesting. What would finally make someone say “This person in my life is not worth it anymore”. At what point can you no longer dismiss the evidence that someone is not the person you used to know? How does forgiveness play into a situation where you have to look past something that was done by to someone you love, or even TO someone you love? If those ideas interest you, I say give “American Pastoral” a watch. Is it the best movie of the year like I was hoping it would be? No, but that doesn’t make it something you should overlook. (Theatrical version on the big screen, November 5, 2016)

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    adamwatchesmovies@  8.11.2016 age: 26-35 2,867 reviews

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