Title
Mud
IMDB
Page
One-Sentence
Summary
Ugly up Matthew McConaughey and
have him team up with two kids to reunite with his “lost love” in this modern
day Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
What’s
Great About It
All kidding aside, the acting in
this movie is pretty good overall, even with some of the plot brain farts. Also, the cinematography is great…the setting
really adds to the tone of the movie.
Also, the casting is really good, except for…
What’s
Not-So-Great About It
…Reese
Witherspoon, who doesn’t “ugly up” as well as McConaughey. She stands out like a sore thumb in this
movie where all of the actors look like real people and she looks like Reese
Witherspoon…in Daisy Dukes and stripper shoes.
There are also some plot lines that wander off and don’t come back. Finally, there’s a scene at the end that,
while being a welcome change of pace, is totally out of whack with the rest of
the movie.
Rating
GGG
Explanation
Ellis
and Neckbone (we never find out what his actual name is) are buddies like Tom Sawyer
and Huck Finn. One day, the stumble upon
a boat caught in a tree because of a recent storm. They claim the boat as theirs and they get a
free prize…Matthew McConaughey as the titular Mud. It appears Mud is living in the boat while he’s
“waiting for someone.” Because of what
must be piss-poor parenting, the two boys (actually mostly Ellis…despite his
stupid name, Neckbone has some sense) agree to help Mud get in touch with the
love of his life…Juniper (Witherspoon).
Obviously,
this would be a pretty short movie if the boys just brought Juniper to Mud, so
some roadblocks are thrown in…apparently, Mud has done some things he maybe
shouldn’t have done. Far be it from me
to spoil things, so let’s just leave it at that. In addition to the main “reunion” plot, there
are a few other plots that the filmmakers throw at us with various degrees of
success: Ellis’ parents are
contemplating divorce (which might result in Ellis’ dad losing his floating
dump heap of a house); Ellis is trying to find true love himself; Neckbone’s
uncle is trying to connect with him (because Neckbone’s parents died); there’s
a weird old man that lives across the river from Ellis that keeps popping up;
Ellis’ mom is trying to bond with him; Juniper is a bit of whore…
All
in all, this movie isn’t too bad. It’s a
little slow in parts and it’s clearly trying really hard to be more than it
is. There are so many topics this movie
tries to explore that you never really get to the heart of the main
characters. At the end, you really don’t
feel as though you know any more about Mud than you did at the beginning…or
maybe I just missed it because I was in awe of Joe Don Baker. The name of the movie really should’ve been
Ellis, because it’s his story. Perhaps
Mud is more of a description of the plot than of the title character…
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