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There's some movies that deserve better performances. The script is there, but the casting is wrong, and the film suffers because of it. "Leaves of Grass" suffers the opposite problem. Edward Norton delivers one of the best performances of his career (which says a lot), but the film doesn't deliver on the same level of his performance leading to a less than mediocre movie that would be hard to recommend regardless of how good that acting really is.

Leaves of Grass is a pretty simple stoner film. It's about two identical twin brothers (both played by Norton) who live completely different lives. One decided to study classics and teach out of Brown University. The other decided to study marijuana and build his empire in the heart of Oklahoma. When the marijuana business goes south, the cultured classics professor is forced to head the the small town swamps to help his brother. What ensues is both equally interesting and entertaining, but quite frankly doesn't deliver on the comedy that the premise is clearly built upon.

Edward Norton really steals the show here. Personally he's been one of my favorite actors ever since American History X, and films like 25th Hour have done nothing but increase my appreciation. Here he plays a straight laced cultured character and a hillbilly hick town drug lord and he plays them both extremely well. Couple this with the fact that the characters appear on screen together fighting, consoling, shooting, and conversing, and you can't help but be amazed at the range one man could show in a single movie.

Despite the performance and the interesting intertwining story of brother helping brother, I still don't think I can recommend this film. It delivers some heartfelt moments, ends on sweet spot, and entertains on somewhat of an emotional level (lot of talk about god, our existence, good vs. bad, and the importance of family) but has such an inconsistent tone that tries to do too many things at once (comedy, action, inspiration, and emotion).

A lot of critics claimed this to be a hidden gem, one of the year's best. I for one wouldn't 100% agree. It's a small-budget film that tries to have a big heart. For me, it just didn't quite get there.

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Michael Buffa- Editor, Popcorn Jury

I really enjoyed this film and think that it will only get better with multiple viewings. The story is not as some reviewers stated dull and boring(if you expect a typical stoner film maybe you would find it slow & unfunny) the film moves at a sedate pace but never feels like it drags, the humour is often gentle or subtle. Ed Norton delivers a stunning performance as the twin brothers, within minutes of watching you forget they're played by one person(this is helped by the fact that there are no scenes that look fake or CGI'd)

The film uses philosophy quotes a lot to explain character motives or personalities and it could have seemed contrived but the director/writer has made it such an integral part of the film that without the quotes and passages the film would be hollow and not have the depth or be as touching and thought provoking as it is.

If you get a chance to see this film, do so, you won't be disappointed(but go into it with an open mind and don't expect slap stick fart gags)

It is fascinating to see certain movies that achieve a specific balance between the familiar and the unique, a particular dynamic perfectly representative of writer/director/actor Tim Blake Nelson's Leaves of Grass. On the surface, the film's prevailing themes of family, reconciliation with one's roots and the tensions between educated/"upper" class and working/"lower" class are identifiable as those articulated in countless films and other cultural texts, suggesting just one more re-tread of the same material. At the same time, in an elusive sense, the particular angle the material is addressed feels somehow fresh and unique, making Leaves of Grass particularly vibrant, dynamic and compelling, both as a narrative and individual character study.

In its most distilled essence, the film charts a rampantly successful Ivy League philosophy professor (Norton) forced to return to and come to terms with his less than glamorous family ties in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Of course the narrative covers significantly more ground than that, particularly the professor being sucked into an ill-advised and hardly legal scheme by his madcap, drug dealer twin brother (also Norton), but Nelson returns so continuously to the aforementioned central themes that the increasingly complex plot surrounding them runs the risk of feeling somewhat besides the point, as enjoyable as it is. However, it is through evolving such a complex web of narrative that Nelson's film feels all the more unique, allowing him to tackle often covered themes with not only a more fresh and indirect approach, but also a great deal more authenticity. Each of the film's characters, as colourful and occasionally larger than life as they may be, feels strikingly real, making their actions and interactions within such a convoluted story alternatively more resonant and hilarious, as if each are playing the 'straight man' against an increasingly madcap story unfolding around them.

With the same charming, powerful yet slightly kooky tone which pervades many of his acting performances, Nelson sets up his film in a wonderfully askew fashion, taking delight in veering right when the logical narrative progression would suggest left, and offering a fair share of surprise twists, including several jarring or downright uncomfortable bursts of serious intensity discordantly changing altering the generally breezy mood. However thematically familiar, the framework of Nelson's film does feel refreshingly unexpected, even if it does somewhat lose its momentum towards the end, trundling towards a denouement that feels somewhat under-thought or vaguely less than effective. Nonetheless, a lively musical score and crisp editing propel the film along at a generally steady pace, assuring that despite the rare stumbling, Nelson's film feels fundamentally alive, truthful and riotously enjoyable.

But, as is common with such character-focused material, it is the cast that ultimately drives the story home. Nelson himself has admitted that he wrote the lead twin characters for Edward Norton, and it is impossible to imagine any other performer offering two such superbly nuanced, powerful and entertaining, not to mention fundamentally different characterizations within a single film, managing the rarely seen trick of playing off himself to perfection. Norton infuses so much life, passion and charisma of such varied sorts into both roles that it is easy to forget they are played by the same actor - a masterclass of acting propelling the emotional centre of the film, and almost singlehandedly making it merit viewing. Keri Russell is similarly fantastic, channeling her trademark sweet, down to earth charm into her performance as a reflective poet and teacher – her riverside philosophical musings make for some of the most quietly thought-provoking and enjoyable cinematic asides of quite some time. Tim Blake Nelson himself manages several laughs and sturdy emotional support as a stoic fellow marijuana grower, and Susan Sarandon offers raw and frequently hilarious emotional vulnerability as both Nortons' ex-hippie mother, forced to reflect on a life of questionable choices. Finally, in a tragically but necessarily brief role, Richard Dreyfuss is hilarious as a respectable Tulsa philanthropist with several shady ties to the less respectable underbelly of the community, making his few scenes shine with shrewd hilarity.

Wacky yet poignantly credible, Nelson's film hits its stride through its melding of familiar content with unfamiliar approach, propelled by a careful, clever script and tremendously memorable characters. In an age filled with ambitious studio films making hefty grabs at easy emotion, it is a delight to witness cinema that manages something powerful, profound and incredibly enjoyable without obvious, clichéd emotional hooks of any sort, making Leaves of Grass without question worth a watch.

-8/10

Ed Norton is great as always, playing two diametrically opposite but highly intelligent identical twins. One brother, Bill, is a professor of classical philosophy who has worked hard to eradicate his Oklahoma accent and fit into the world of east coast academia. The other, Brady, stills lives in Oklahoma and makes good money selling high-grade marijuana with his red-neck buddies. Brady tricks Bill into returning home for the first time in 2 decades so that Bill can be an alibi while Brady commits a crime in another city. Although Bill is furious and is tempted to fly back home immediately, he ends up staying a few extra days and visits his mother for the first time since childhood. He also meets Janet, played by Keri Russell, a beautiful, intelligent woman who can recites poetry while gutting a catfish. It's an enjoyable movie with quite a few surprise twists along the way.

The strengths of the movie were excellent performances by Norton and Russell, and even director Tim Blake Nelson was great in the role of Bolger. This movie will probably do very well at the box office because of the big name cast plus some great dialogue and humour. I didn't love the ending though, because of too many coincidences and some implausible scenes near the finish. Also, there was an exploration of Christian-Jewish animosity which seemed like an awfully heavy theme to (briefly) deal with here in what is essentially a romantic-comedy. I almost gave this a 6, but the great acting is definitely worth at least an extra point and I bumped it up to a 7 out of 10.

I enjoyed "Leaves of Grass" for awhile, until writer/director Tim Blake Nelson, who also has a supporting role in the film as a hillbilly pothead, tired me out with his insistence on pushing the film into directions it just didn't make sense for it to go.

Edward Norton is immensely enjoyable as a pair of twin brothers, one an intellectual from the city, the other a country bumpkin with a major marijuana operation, who are reunited after the country brother fakes his death to persuade the other to visit home (a home he has shunned) and then drags him unwillingly into a shady scheme involving some other drug dealers once he gets him down there. There was plenty of interesting potential to be had in the story of these two very different brothers who maybe aren't quite as different as they think they are, but Nelson insists on throwing in a bunch of other distracting plot strands that make what should have been a low-key comedy something schizophrenic and exasperating. The film is only 105 minutes long, yet we have a storyline involving the brothers' mom (played by Susan Sarandon) and the city brother's estrangement from her; a love interest for the city brother (Keri Russell) who recites Walt Whitman poetry while filleting a catfish; the whole drug war storyline that gets queasily violent; and the dumbest storyline of all, involving an orthodontist in debt who hatches a half-assed blackmail scheme. I think Nelson is going for black comedy with much of his film, but he doesn't succeed; the abrupt changes in tone are jarring, and one of the violent scenes at the end involving the orthodontist character is downright tacky.

This movie is a prime example of what happens when a lot of talent is assembled and then squandered by a bad screenplay and unsure direction.

Grade: C