The United States Of Leland Review
by Harvey S. Karten (harveycritic AT cs DOT com)March 29th, 2004
THE UNITED STATES OF LELAND
Reviewed by: Harvey S. Karten
Grade: B+
Paramount Classics
Directed by: Matthew Ryan Hoge
Written by: Matthew Ryan Hoge
Cast: Don Cheadle, Ryan Gosling, Chris Klein, Jena Malone, Lena Olin, Kevin Spacey, Michelle Williams, Martin Donovan Screened at: Preview 9, NYC, 3/3/04
When you look at serial killer Aileen Wuornos, whether the actual person portrayed in the last year's documentary feature "Aileen" or at the way she's depicted in "Monster," you may say to yourself, "Aha! She looks like a killer and I'd be wary of ever giving her a lift in my Jag!" Why does she look like a murderer? Simply put, she's ugly, homely, a mess, and only people who look bad commit evil, right? You would never think that someone looking like Charlize Theron would even keep money she received from an undercharging store clerk, would you? I wouldn't. Or at least I wouldn't have until I saw "The United States of Leland," a remarkable debut feature written and directed by Matthew Ryan Hoge which despite the occasional editing chop has been successfully realized. "Leland" is about a kid; sensitive, caring, handsome, sweet, living in a prosperous Southern California suburb--who commits a crime that is so senseless that an aspiring novelist who works as a teacher in a juvenile detention center seeks him out as the potential subject of a book.
What's particularly involving about Hoge's work is that this is a film not just about people, places and things, but about ideas, about ethics, about moral choices the sorts of decisions we make daily or weekly or yearly between two options, both legal, but at least one of which is not unethical. We can best introduce the subject of this film (bear with me) by citing Randy Cohen's weekly column called "Ethics" in the New York Times magazine, wherein sensitive, caring people ask Randy whether what they have done is ethical. For example, in a March issue, a woman states that a girl about to be married has agreed to let a friend design her wedding gown, but she and her friend go to bridal shops to try on dresses simply to give the pal ideas: they have no interest in buying. That's legal, but is it ethical?
"The United States of Leland" is about a murder, both illegal and highly unethical, but in a stretch of imagination, Hoge uses the existential act of the otherwise decent suburban lad to convey the idea that while most of us do not commit such a heinous deed as taking a life, we are not necessarily saints. Most of us, Hoge appears to say are neither angels nor devils but commit ourselves to activities in an ethical gray zone. Here's how he does this.
Hoge introduces us to Leland P. Fitzgerald (Ryan Gosling) a fellow of about the age of seventeen, who shocks his wealthy community and celebrity dad by murdering a retarded kid whom he scarcely knew. Leland freely admits his act, so the story is not a whodunnit but, rather, a whydunnit. While verging on soap opera at times, Hoge's tale shows the impact of the murder on the community, particularly on those close to the victim and the perpetrator, but goes beyond the melodramatics to indict the boy's father, celebrated writer Albert T. Fitzgerald (Kevin Spacey), for living permanently in Paris, rarely seeing or speaking to Leland for a decade. Albert's sending the kid air tickets to Italy or for that matter to any place but Albert's own residence--is particularly telling. Meanwhile Becky Pollard (Jena Malone), the sister of the murder victim, had confided in Leland who appears to love the girl but who drops him to take off with a drug dealer.
The would-be novelist, Pearl Madison (Don Cheadle), who teaches in the juvenile center housing Leland, appears particularly interested in the boy, but his concern is not altruistic. He seems himself as a Theodore Dreiser writing the next "An American Tragedy," about a killer who does not conform to type. Take some ethical points away from Mr. Madison. There's more. Madison cheats on his temporarily absent girlfriend, taking up with a co-worker in the detention center, the adorable Ayesha (Kerry Washington). Lop off another couple of points from this guy.
Hoge brings in a whole web of family connections, including that of Allen Harris (Chris Klein) who is living with his girlfriend Julie (Michelle Williams), who is Becky's older sister. Allen will soon commit himself to a series of actions not only unethical but downright illegal.
The script comes most to life in a bar scene, pitting Kevin Spacey's character against Don Cheadle's; the absentee father arrogantly claiming that he could write 12 novels just on the way the light casts shadows in the room while dismissing Cheadle's Pearl Madison as a hack who is exploiting Leland for his own
glory.
Few films in recent years have played as many games with narrative structure as this one, James Glennon's lenses taking us into various time frames, keeping us in the audience on our toes to assist us in understanding a kid like Leland. We're tempted to say that Leland gives away his motive, a general sense of alienation from everything around him which could conceivably turn him into a monster for just the instant it would take to commit the crime. Then again, the answer is not that easy which is probably why a proper psychoanalysis can take years to dig and dig and dig beneath surfaces like an archeologist trying to find bows and arrows under Grand Central Station.
Ryan Gosling, not quite as unrecognizable as Charlize Theron in "Monster," did indeed play the yeshiva-educated young man in New York who becomes a neo-Nazi skinhead in "The Believer," a wise casting choice if only because both roles appear inexplicable. A Jewish Nazi? A suburban, nice-guy murderer? Don Cheadle's performance is a standout as well, as a teacher who, despite his self-image as a caregiver, is less than an exemplary person. "The United States of Leland" requires patience. The violent moments are off-screen or muted, the emphasis on the peeling of onions, so to speak. Lena Olin and Martin Donovan round out the cast nicely as the murderer's mom and victim's dad respectively in a tale that looks with a harsh critical eye at the principal defense we use when committing unethical acts: "We're only human, aren't we?"
Rated R. 104 minutes.(c) 2004 by Harvey Karten at
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