The United States Of Leland Review
by Andy Keast (arthistoryguy AT aol DOT com)April 26th, 2004
The United States of Leland (2003): *1/2 out of ****
Written and directed by Matthew Ryan Hoge. Starring Ryan Gosling, Don Cheadle,
Chris Klein, Jena Malone, Kevin Spacey and Michelle Williams.
by Andy Keast
"The United States of Leland" hails from the populous land of first-time writer-directors who want to change people's lives with their films. It's the latest entry into the Tragic Lives of Suburban America sweepstakes. It offers a lame, childish view of humanity that also wants to be "uplifting," wasting no
time being another tired update on everything that's wrong with the world, of course. Thanks but no thanks. It's possible that I could forgive the poor writing had the acting and directing been stronger, but instead it features Ryan Gosling dwelling on why he's "all sad and junk," as he puts it.
Gosling plays Leland, a "troubled" kid (aren't they all) who murders a mentally
retarded boy for no reason. The film wants to be "smartly written" about it's youth characters with expositional voiceovers: "They want an answer…a 'why'…a reason…but there is no reason." You know the drill. They play like recyclables from a high school diary. The whole movie is voiced over with
2-cent musings just like that. Gosling tries to look pensive and dreamy, always looking out the window, saying "deep" little nuggets about footsteps and
earthquakes -the kind of stuff you hear at a night of awful open mic poetry. At times I wondered if Leland may be borderline retarded himself, or just overacting.
The film dwells on Leland's family and friends of the family. It dwells and dwells and dwells -and then ends. It's also desperate to lay the tragedy on heavy: Kevin Spacey is an estranged alcoholic father. Lena Olin is a mother whose sole purpose in the film is to be divorced from the father, so Leland can
be from divorced parents. Don Cheadle is a teacher who cheats on his absent girlfriend. Chris Klein is the single "good" character in the film, so no points for guessing if he'll spiral downward to his own tragic end. Jena Malone is a drug addict girlfriend. This year the youth drug of choice is heroin -and why not? When one considers the ridiculous proclamations made by films like "Kids" and "Thirteen," it all becomes a shock-trip farce anyway. Michelle Williams essentially lies around throughout the film, staring at the walls and thinking deep thoughts, I suppose.
One last thing: Remember the plastic bag from "American Beauty"? "Leland"'s Plastic Bag motif is a character's POV, where we receive an image through only one eye (with the other closed), then vice versa, making the image shift slightly back and forth. I would like to point out that this motif is stolen from Roman Polanski's 1962 film "Nóz w wodzie."
More on 'The United States Of Leland'...
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