Provinces of Night

I rented this at Redbox after seeing the 7.2 IMDb rating. I forgot to check the number of IMDb votes. With only 300+ votes, it's obvious that many of the reviewers worked on the movie or were related to the cast and crew. Their praise was the praise of a parent for a dearly loved, but completely ungifted, child. This movie basically stank. It has some big name actors and it appears to have been made with a reasonable budget, but the general acting, directing, and storyline were BAD, BAD, BAD. Did you see Winter's Bone? If so, Winter's Bone probably inspired this movie, but the inspiration was drowned by a lack of writing, acting, and directing talent. My general rule of thumb is that you can ignore an IMDb rating until you have over 1,000 votes. The first few hundred votes are anything but unbiased. I forgot to check the number of votes and wasted $1 on another Redbox stinker.

Fleming Bloodworth (Reece Thompson) is desperate to leave his small town life. His uncle Warren (Val Kilmer) is a wild man with Hazel (Hilarie Burton) in his car. He's too drunk to drive. He pushes underage Fleming to drive him and passed out Hazel to Louise Halfacre (Sheila Kelley). This leads to a drunken fight between Hazel and Louise. The good part is that Fleming connects with Louise's daughter Raven Lee Halfacre (Hilary Duff). His grandfather E. F. Bloodworth (Kris Kristofferson) returns after 40 years on the road as a traveling singer. He had abandoned his wife (Frances Conroy) and his 3 sons. The Bloodworth men are all broken and bitter.

The problem seems to be that the characters are all random wild southern screw ups. The script is a mess of characters going every which way. Things happen that I'm uncertain about. A pig shows up in the middle for some reason. I'm fine with Reece Thompson but Hilary Duff leaves me with concerns. She has this bubbly personality that can't be restraint but her character needs to be darker. Her mother is such a mess that it has to show up in her performance. At first glance, the problem basically boils down to director Shane Dax Taylor in his second movie and screenwriter W. Earl Brown on his first film script. The inexperience really shows.

I love Val and Kris. And recently, Dwight has shown his acting chops so I had to see this. This is a slow moving story with mostly great acting so it was able to maintain my interest. The Brady Bloodworth character (W. Earl Brown) is over-acted in my opinion but the rest of the characters can hold your interest. You want to see what ultimately happens so you keep watching.

Watch this if you are willing to give it time but don't watch if you need car chases, or something to blow up. Mostly great cast and a few classic lines from some Hollywood legends. Beautiful scenery is just a bonus to this film. Bright, vibrant scenery adds to the overall experience of this down home Americana type film.

For better or worse, this story is very believable on many levels. Relax, turn off the phone and enjoy.

"I'm Warren, your son. When I was a boy you said you'd take me fishin, you never did. C'mon."

(2011) Bloodworth/ Provinces of Night DRAMA

Adapted from the novel ""Provinces of the Night" by William Gay, with the word "Bloodworth" as the title indicates, I have to say fans of horror may be disappointed since it has a title one could see for a scary movie, but it's really the last name of a redneck family centering on a father E. F. (Kris Kristofferson) making attempts to reconcile the family that he left behind many years ago once finding out he has cancer. Although, the music sounds great, it wasn't enough to keep this film afloat since they're several familiar nuances making it way too simplistic. The point of view is from the most educated one in the "Bloodworth" family whose inspired to be a writer, Fleming played by Reece Thompson who falls for Raven played by Hillary Duff. Also stars is Val Kilmer as the bar owner Warren Bloodworth and Dwight Yoakam as Boyd Bloodworth. Doesn't offer anything new the genre.

Obviously it was the cast that made me want to give this a watch. I haven't seen too many (if any) Kris Kristofferson movies but do like some of his songs and know he has been pretty successful as an actor and has been in some good movies.

Val Kilmer I've always admired as an actor from Top Gun to The Doors, certainly in Tombstone and even liked him as Batman.

Hilary Duff was my first childhood crush but she usually just appeared in a lot of fluff that had its place 20 years ago but doesn't get brought up a lot today, though I do think she is still pretty and can act.

Dwight Yoakam was very good in Sling Blade.

But as Gene Siskel once said "big stars simply do not guarantee big entertainment."

Kristofferson's role is just cliched and forgettable aside from his singing there's nothing interesting about his character or performance.

Kilmer a superb scene stealing actor certainly injects some entertainment into this lethargic movie but I still have to wonder why is Val Kilmer even in this movie to begin with? I know he is known to be difficult to work with and has burned some bridges with certain directors but did he burn them bad enough that he had to make low budget material not worthy of his talent like this?

This is a man in the 80's and early 90's appeared in blockbusters and critically acclaimed films and was usually the best part of all of them. Despite keeping things alive albeit briefly here, this is a wasted role for Kilmer and just another forgettable hidden low budget film that he made up until he was sadly diagnosed with throat cancer a few years ago. He certainly deserves a better role and script than this.

Duff is also probably the other least boring part of the film. Sure she has always been pretty but here she proves a decent enough actress and i don't think she's as wooden as I or others might have expected her in a more serious role. In fact when she was on the screen I was least bored along with Kilmer.

Yoakam's role is so brief and forgettable that I honestly think I blinked and missed him. Another wasted talent, who again was a superb villain in Sling Blade but underused in an unnecessary role to show his potential as an actor. Chalk that up to Billy Bob Thornton for writing a better role for him and directing him in the aforementioned film.

I know this wants to be a Tender Mercies and Crazy Heart meets a typical southern dysfunctional family drama but unfortunately the other two films had enough compelling moments and characters we cared about that they worked.

There's not really anyone to root for here. While Kilmer and Duff shine as actors their characters are certainly not ones we identify easily with and therefore their characters are hard to invest in or care about although they do bring some charisma to both of them and are thus mildly engaging actors.

Kristofferson is a fine singer on songwriter but he doesn't sing anything here that sticks out like Robert Duvall did in Tender Mercies or Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart. He does have a pleasing voice though and it's nice to listen to him sing if nothing else.

The movie moves slower than a snail which in addition to wasting most of its actors, is mostly boring and forgettable.

I liked a couple performances but it's not enough for me to recommend at all and it's easy to see why this went largely unnoticed upon release. The cast certainly deserved a better screenplay than what they got.

Watch Tender Mercies and Crazy Heart and give this one a pass. It's also very expensive to stream. I ended up renting a free DVD at my local library, but even if you can see it for cheaper it's still not worth the effort.

I appreciate the ambition of the actors to be sure and while they try their best they are better then the written material that transferred from page to screen.

I wouldn't even put this on the same level of a bottom of the barrel streaming movie or a Hallmark movie. Even those tend to be more entertaining.