Promised Land

Follow @SMindedMovie Promised Land Jason Bourne takes on Jim Halpert in a thrilling showdown where the lives of a small farming town are at stake. I go to the movie theater quite a bit; with a friend or two; with a huge group of people; even by myself. Sitting in a dark room, my soft drink awaiting my grip in the cup holder, popcorn in my lap as it slowly empties. Leaving my world behind as I get pulled into the excitement waiting for me on the other side of the screen. While I've watched so many movies this past year Promised Land has been one movie that seems to sneak in to every set of previews. At first the movie didn't seem very interesting beyond the point that Matt Damon and John Krasinski were starring in it. One thing that always caught my eye was "From the Director of Good Will Hunting." The first few times I watched this preview, Good Will Hunting was in my Netflix instant queue and had yet to be watched. Once I took the time to cross Good Will Hunting off my "you gotta see that" list, I had a new passion to see this movie. Rafer Guzman of Newsday says Promised Land was "A well-intentioned look at a fraught issue, but the Damon-Krasinski screenplay ultimately opts for Hollywood oversimplification." (full review here)  If you had to read over the word fraught a few times and thought to yourself whether that is a made up word or not, it means its loaded. I believe what Mr. Guzman is trying to say here is that for such a loaded issue such as fracking, this script, and ultimately, this movie was way too simple to really handle the grand picture of what fracking really is. Thank you, Mr. Guzman, will you be telling me that  Little Big League is too simple of a movie for me to really grasp what it's like managing a Major League Baseball team? Of course the script for Promised Land is simple, its made with the thought in mind that not everyone going to see it will have a Major in Agricultural Science. If, after watching the movie, people want to research what is really going on with fracking, they can do that on their own time. There is no need to stretch a movie that is an hour and forty six minutes long, into a two and a half hour movie so everyone watching now knows the ins and outs of fracking.  This was not the movie I was hoping it would be. There were parts that dragged, parts that made very little sense, and a final twist that with modern technology, like the internet, never should have happened. On the other hand, the characters were warm and easily relatable. My favorite part in the movie was an angry speech Damon gave to a few drunk guys at a bar when his character was at his last straw. The emotion felt real enough to actually care with how the movie would end.  I've seen better movies. I've also seen much worse. If you have already watched the many great movies out right now and are looking for something to take up a few hours of your time, this would work fine for you.