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| Matt Damon has gotten lost in a field (...) on the poster for Gus Van Sant's Promised Land |
QUICK REVIEW:
A natural gas salesman experiences opposition in a small town, who are critical to letting his company do their fracking business there for natural gas.
Co-writing pals Matt Damon (Saving Private Ryan (1998)) and John Krasinski (The Office (2005-09)) appear to have build this film around the central plan that they should both play in it, - bad idea.
The dramatic development in Promised Land is mostly just that it goes bad for our company rep protagonist in the film's first hour, until the plot then gets very convoluted and conspiratorial when we find out that SPOILER Krasinski's environmentalist character is planted in the town by the natural gas company!
Damon looks like a haggard, stressed-out mess throughout. He was supposed to direct the film as his directorial debut, but had to let old pal, great director Gus Van Sant (Milk (2008)) take the reins, because of other engagements like heading Elysium (2013). His look in Promised Land is probably his natural look at the time, the look of an over-working actor/father/husband.
Promised Land is an overly well-meant ode to the homestead. It met with a counter-campaign from the gas industry, but as Promised Land isn't a very good film and never reached a very big audience, its impact on said industry must have been fairly manageable.
Van Sant's next film will be Sea of Trees, a film about a suicidal man on Mt. Fuji in Japan, with Matthew McConaughey, Naomi Watts and Ken Watanabe. Hopefully something worthwhile.
I really love the trailer for Promised Land and want to believe in it, but it just doesn't come together in the film. And - R-rated!?! - That's ludicrous. - Babies could watch this film
Budget: 15 mil. $
Box office: 8.1 mil. $
= Big flop
What do you think of Promised Land?
Other, better environmentally-themed dramas?
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