Wednesday 23 April 2014

Mud (2012) 7/10

Starring : Matthew McConaughey, Tye Sheridan, Jacob Lofland, Reese Witherspoon, Sam Shepard
Director : Jeff Nichols
Running Time : 131 mins

Ellis (Sheridan) and his friend Neckbone (Lofland) discover a boat suspended from the branches of a tree and decide to lay claim to it. When they discover that a man named Mud (McConaughey) has been living in it, they confront him on the beach and come to an agreement – they can have the boat if they help him get supplies from town. When they find out he is a convict on the run for killing a man who hurt his girlfriend Juniper (Witherspoon), they decide to help him repair the boat so he can make his escape in it.

Loosely based on Tom Sawyer, this movie does a great job of paralleling the lives of Mud and Ellis, and it is quite scary towards the end when what happened to Mud when he was younger seems to be happening to Ellis. The ambiguity of Mud’s innocence is never put into question, so we never have him lying to the boys that are helping him, though he does use tricky words to get things his own way. Fans of Mark Twain should enjoy this, but it isn’t brilliant.

You’ll like this if you liked : Stand By Me


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