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'AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara star in this romantic crime drama about young lovers who are also outlaws, in Texas, that's crime spree comes to an end when one of them is sent to prison. He then breaks out of prison, years later, and travels home to see his wife again and meet his daughter for the first time. The film was written and directed by David Lowery and also stars Ben Foster, Nate Parker and Keith Carradine. It's a routine story but it's beautifully shot and the acting is all more than decent.

Affleck plays Bob Muldoon and Mara plays Ruth Guthrie, they're outlaws in Texas who run into trouble on their latest heist and Guthrie shoots and wounds a police officer named Patrick Wheeler (Foster). Muldoon takes credit for the shooting and Guthrie claims to not have been involved in any of their crimes, so Muldoon goes to prison as Guthrie has their child. He later escapes, multiple years later, and travels home to see his wife again and meet his daughter. As he returns he finds the police waiting for him and Wheeler is now romantically interested in his wife.

The movie seems inspired by classic 'young love and crime' films like 'BADLANDS' and even 'BONNIE AND CLYDE' but it isn't nearly as memorable as the movies it's trying to emulate. Lowery is a talented director though and (like I said) the acting is great and the cinematography (by Bradford Young) is beautiful. Affleck and Mara are well cast as the young lover outlaws but their talent (along with Foster, Carradine and most of the rest) deserves a lot better than this script. There's just nothing to it. The film looks good enough to make it worthwhile though and that title is classic (Affleck says it doesn't mean anything but is just Lowery's misinterpretation of the lyrics to a song). It's style over substance filmmaking but it's gorgeous all the same.

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David Lowery has constructed a beautiful, atmospheric, little indie film with this 1970's Texas crime melodrama. At every point where Lowery could have added Hollywood flourishes and gimmicks to make the film more commercial he refuses to do so. The result is a thin crime & punishment type plot that functions as a canvas for this tone poem about passion and tragedy. I don't know if I could say there's anything ultimately redemptive about these sad, doomed characters but perhaps it's enough to say that they possess a degree of humanity that makes us pity them for the choices they've made. This is another triumph for Rooney Mara who is excellent as a strong, young woman who desires a better life and a man who can't get it for her. There's great irony in the way events turn out for her and it's all totally believable. I was also impressed with Casey Affleck's performance as her lover and small time criminal. In supporting roles there's Nate Parker as a friend of Affleck; Ben Foster's sympathetic police officer and Keith Carradine soaring as a town elder and father figure to Rooney and Affleck. "Ain't Them Bodies Saints" is a great looking picture and Bradford Young deserves all the praise he has earned for his cinematography.

I don't think this is a great film, merely a good one, but it's still one where your anticipation for the next thing the director does is heightened. The directing has a poetic, lyrical beauty to it. This may sound clichéd, but yes, it's very "Malick-y" at times. It's overall a very solid flick, with some strong performances. Mara, Foster, Carradine are all pretty good, but Casey Affleck stands out amongst them. Not a surprise perhaps, seeing as how I consider his performance in Jesse James to be the finest I've ever seen, but there's a raw naturality to how he carries his character. It's all incredibly realized from the inside, and he comes across with the most charisma.

Deeply indebted to Terrence Malick's style. So much so, it never really becomes its own thing (unlike, say, Beasts of the Southern Wild, which had so much of its own energy Malick's name never popped up in my mind until long afterward). Fortunately, the performances in it are so good that it's quite worthwhile. Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara star as a couple who get caught up in criminal activities. The two are caught, Affleck goes to prison and Mara gets acquitted. She gives birth to their daughter, and the two live comfortably under the protection of Keith Carradine and, after a while, a police officer (Ben Foster) who harbors a crush on her. When the child is around 4, Affleck escapes from jail and goes looking for his old girlfriend. All four of the principle actors are fantastic. Mara, whose Oscar nominated performance in The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo is one of the few I've skipped in the last few years (I loathed the Swedish original), has blown me away between this and Side Effects. She is the real deal. Affleck unfortunately never became the huge star he deserved to be after The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (that was six years ago!). I really wish his brother Ben would've cast him instead of himself in his last two films (it's one of the reasons that, in my opinion, Gone Baby Gone remains Ben Affleck's best film as a director). Foster, too, deserves to be a bigger star, with Oscar caliber performances in The Messenger and 3:10 to Yuma. I wish the film were a bit more original, but the acting really does sell it.

Caught this at Sundance where the buzz surrounding it was pretty high. Did it live up to the hype? Yes and No.

As almost every reviewer has noted, it is a return to the Terrance Malick/Robert Altman-style outlaw lovers films of the 70s. Lots of long lingering visuals of country places and lots of deeply-felt brooding by the main characters. Not bad for that kind of film, but frankly nothing to write home about.

The three leads are very good, as is Keith Carradine. The music and photography are great (though I think there is an over abundance of mid and close shots in a film that screams out for long deep focus photography). Yet, somehow, it doesn't quite jell. A lot of this could be due to its slow pace. Another element may be the reluctance of the writer/director to dole out plot points (you know, like when someone reads an important letter, but we don't find out what is inside until 15 minutes later).

All in all, it is fairly good for what it is. I am sure it will garner positive response from critics. Still, somehow the whole is less than the sum of its parts.