Mud (***)
Directed
by: Jeff Nichols
Starring:
Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Tye Sheridan, Jacob Lofland, Sam
Shepard, Ray McKinnon, Sarah Paulson, Michael Shannon, Joe Don Baker
Seen:
December 6th 2013
***
Out of ****
Mud takes the viewer back to carefree Tom Sawyer days
spent meandering in the woods and on a boat out on the river as a young
teenager. And it brings an additional element of danger as the two main
characters, Ellis (Sheridan) and Neckbone (Lofland) venture into a story that
holds more threat than they initially care to realise. Matthew McConaughey is
incredible as the titular character, an slightly delusional outsider trying to
find his spot in this world, and Reese Witherspoon is also great as a bit of a
wash-out prom-queen. The movie is beautifully filmed and you can almost smell
the dust, the river, the mud.
Ellis and Neckbone, two 14-year old friends, roam
the Mississippi River in their small boat with one outboard engine. They go to
a small island in the river, where they find a boat lodged in a tree after
recent floods. They want to claim it for themselves and keep it as a home base
for their activities away from home, but they discover that someone is already
living in the boat, a mysterious man named Mud. Back on land the authorities
and some shadier characters are searching for Mud after unfortunate events including
Mud’s first love, Juniper (Witherspoon). Mud cannot go to the mainland in his
quest to repair the boat, so he recruits the boys, and they take him food and
parts to start work on the boat.
Mud tells the boys that he arranged a meeting with
Juniper before they both sail off into the sunset, and Ellis and Neckbone
decide to assist him in his romantic quest. Ellis is seeing the ugliness of a
looming divorce at home, his mom Mary Lee (Paulson) on the verge of walking out
on his dad Senior (McKinnon), which will legally threaten their houseboat, as
it belongs to his mother. Neckbone lives with his uncle Galen (Shannon), who
tries to make a living from scavenging items from the Mississippi. King
(Baker), whom Mud has wronged, shows up and Mud will need help, including whatever
assistance he can from Tom Blankenship (Shepard), who knows about Mud’s history
with Juniper, and who lives just across the river from Ellis. The boys are
caught in the middle as they keep helping Mud but are also confronted with some
issues that threaten their innocence, firstly Mud’s relationship with Juniper
(Ellis having to deal with yet more relationship difficulties), and then the
threat of King and his men.
Mud is a calmly enjoyable movie that tells an
engaging little story infused with the memories of wandering the world as a
young adolescent, and I can certainly recommend it to anyone who ever runs
across it, don’t let it pass you by.
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