Rick-8

Very literate and poignant, and sometimes comical, the script storyline tracks the arc and back again of the relationship between a wealthy, upper-class professor who cursory espouses to Communism, his free-spirited daughter-in-law who is sexually and experimentally focused, and his reality-based five year old granddaughter. The Professor's son can't face his responsibility and, with his father's help, leaves the city for farming. The elderly housekeeper tries to keep order, even though she, too, is effected by the chaos that swarms around the household. Outstanding performances by the entire cast culminates with the growth in understanding by all parties involved. Or so you think...

Love is difficult no matter what relationships are binded together. However, male bonding can be the most difficult and fraught with anxiety. To find love among men means weakness in parts of our society. "The Slaughter Rule" converges on that dilemma within an archetypal framework of male sports.

Superb casting is generated in the chemistry between the mature teenager Roy Chutney (Ryan Gosling) and adolescent adult Gideon Ferguson (David Morse), who wrangle on the dangerous edge of pederasty. Not finding true love with women, Gid searches and grasps for intimacy the only way he has known: football. Roy subconsciously searches for the father he never really had, getting a little more than he bargained for in return.

In bleak blizzard landscapes and amid hard scrabble lives, the Smith brothers and their camera freeze on the action, whether on the playing fields or the local restaurant or honky tonk. Beautifully photographed in Montana and containing wonderfully written dialogue, one feels they have known the characters for a long, long time. They embody flesh, blood, bones, brains, guts, heart, and love.