Blue Ridge

In the world of movies - especially independent movies - Blue Ridge is that rare anomaly; a film that doesn't take itself seriously enough. Whatever movie one makes, the maker must believe in his/her creation whole-heartedly, and evidently this is not the case here; some ironic (or simply dishonest) distancing of the heart at the core of this tale spoils the near-cohesive soup of ingredients 'selling' us this story of a New Sheriff with a troubled marriage in a Small Town with Trouble. The casting, acting, filmography, dialogue and music were all very good, but could not transcend this fatal flaw. The tongue-in-cheek stretches were over-extended to the point of making the climatic face-off of the primary protagonists cliche'd and unbelievable. (& BTW the over-done SFX flash of fire from his gun when the grieving Native American leader fired it in the air is jarringly unbelievable, too.) Although intelligent, the writers missed an easy opportunity to weave the theme of Thanksgiving into the storyline which would have enriched this film overall, plus make it fit into a popular market in need of refreshing alternatives to the classic Planes, Trains and Automobiles; all those lovely touches of Autumnal colour (though we were denied pumpkins - presumably because of this strange preference for neutrality of time and place) resulted in an unfulfilled seasonal promise, and missed out on a heart-warming closing scene of our heroic crime-solving Sheriff and his wife and daughter reuniting as a once-again happy family around a Thanksgiving table peopled with grateful new neighbours and friends. Too bad. Blue Ridge shoulda/coulda been a little gem, instead of a Fargo wanna-be.

I thought this was terrific. You absolutely believed in the feud and indeed, all the characters were totally believable. Well acted, beautiful scenery at times and yet the jarring music, which in my mind brilliantly portrayed the situation and setting, made you feel totally uneasy. This keeps you guessing right until the end. I don't care what other people rated this, I thought it was a little gem.

I don't know what some of the other reviewers are talking about. "Low budget"??? Have any of you actually seen a real "low budget" movie? This one does not have the look and feel of "low budget".

Story was good. Acting solid. Visuals and sound were good. The only thing that really bothered me was the incessant score. I hate movies that think there MUST be music playing every second. But that issue aside, it was engaging and enjoyable.

I will say it lacked any hint of "political correctness", which may account for some of the negative reviews.

This would have made a nice pilot for a series. But alas, sans the aforementioned political correctness, it would never even be considered.

Kudos to the cast and crew!

Actually didnt mind the story, liked it and could be a series BUT stop the horrible back ground music !!!!! Understand the whole hartfield macoy feud fine in the Appalachian hills but again got a headache from the over the top dramatic background music.

I thought this movie delivered. I thought it had a good storyline, the characters were interesting enough and the mystery of who had committed the murder wasn't predictable. All in all it's better than most of the terrible movies put out by mainstream Hollywoood these days.