Matthew McConaughey plays the title character who two young boys (Tye Sheridan and Jacob Lofland) happen upon after discovering a large boat stranded in a tree; presumably due to a storm, but the film isn't interested in answering the question, and given the elegiac tone of the film, part of you will probably wonder whether it might even have fallen out of the sky. Mud is using the boat as a refuge whilst he waits for a meeting that may never come.
The focus of the film is Sheridan's Ellis, who's at that uneasy stage of being neither man nor boy. His exchanges with his best friend Neckbone (Lofland) is one of the best things about the film. Their manner as they try and exude a maturity which they have yet to earn (or fully comprehend), and their fascination with swearing and, most importantly, with the fairer sex, is spot on. I don't know what female audience members will make of the simplistic juvenile exchanges, but for me it was a perfect snapshot of what it was like at that age. The last time a film did that so effectively was probably all the way back in 1986: Rob Reiner's Stand By Me.
Mud will be on the way out of theatres shortly - if it isn't already - as it's just a small independent film, but it deserves to be seen by a much wider audience. The way it presents Ellis's idealistic and naive worldview, particularly in respects to love, is quietly heartbreaking. You watch the film and want to believe people are as good as Ellis thinks they are; that love, true love, (a: exists, and b:) always works out; and that when a person gives their word, they'll stand by it. Ellis has his worldview knocked about a fair bit, leaving it scratched and dented, but we believe (or at least I believe) that he won't stop expecting better from the people in his life.
Except for a slightly baggy third act, the only other misstep Jeff Nichols (the writer and director) makes is the title, which fails to reflect the feel and tone of the film. McConaughey's character is the one that gets the plot moving, but it's Ellis that we follow throughout. The title connects, to a degree, with the world Ellis lives in, working the river with his father as they struggle to make ends meet - you leave the cinema fighting the instinct to check that you haven't got dirt under your nails - and Mud doesn't keep much better company himself, but the title still feels apart from the film I watched.
Overall: 8.5/10
As of this minute it's the best thing I've seen this year. But this year's been a tad average so far, so it's not the all-out recommendation it might be.
No comments:
Post a Comment