American Pastoral
American Pastoral
Directed by:
Ewan McGregorScreenplay:
John RomanoCinematography:
Martin RuheComposer:
Alexandre DesplatCast:
Ewan McGregor, Jennifer Connelly, Dakota Fanning, Peter Riegert, Rupert Evans, Uzo Aduba, Molly Parker, Valorie Curry, Hannah Nordberg, Mark Hildreth (more)VOD (2)
Plots(1)
Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning Phillip Roth novel, AMERICAN PASTORAL follows an all American family across several decades, as their idyllic existence is shattered by social and political turmoil that will change the fabric of American culture forever. Ewan McGregor (Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Beginners) makes his directorial debut and stars as Seymour "Swede" Levov, a once legendary high school athlete who is now a successful businessman married to Dawn, a former beauty queen. But turmoil brews beneath the polished veneer of Swede's life. When his beloved daughter, Merry, disappears after being accused of committing a violent act, Swede dedicates himself to finding her and reuniting his family. What he discovers shakes him to the core, forcing him to look beneath the surface and confront the chaos that is shaping the modern world around him: no American family will ever be the same. (Lionsgate US)
(more)Reviews (3)
Ewan McGregor could have hardly picked a more difficult story to adapt. The ending will arouse emotions and maybe
move some people, but everything before that misses the mark, coming across as something empty and without any
meaningful message. McGregor is an emotional, likeable guy whose acting stills are not enough for such a complicated
character. Jennifer Connelly’s moods change so fast that they don’t seem to belong to a single character, and the
character of the troubled daughter just doesn’t work, period. American Pastoral is poorly directed and dramaturgically a
complete failure of a film.
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I was looking forward to a movie about the destruction of the American Dream, but I can't help it, it just didn't work out, and you're left with a fairly empty narrative where the actors tried, but it still wasn't enough. An excellent trio of actors in the lead roles, yet you still feel like it's very dull. Here, the script and set design failed, being incredibly restrained and not wanting to show anything more.
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American Pastoral is a somewhat peculiar film that could have been very successful but remained somewhere halfway there. The whole time, I was incredibly annoyed by the behavior of the daughter Merry, played by Dakota Fanning. I guess that's why I couldn't really empathize with the story. My emotions got a bit shaken only at the very end. The clear message of the film for me remains that loving one's child unconditionally, no matter how dreadful their actions, does not pay off. It can take us to the very edge of the abyss from which there is no return. (65%)
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