O Retorno de Bloodworth

Wow, this movie is so good. Wonderful characters, wonderful storyline, wonderful songs and music, beautiful countryside. Weird but also very normal people down in the South. There are very nice and kind people, but also got lot of mean people, white trash. The guy who left the family 40 years ago, now wanted to come back to his old home again to die. There are so many deep nostalgic emotions, melancholic memories, hard and hurt feelings floating around in this bitter sweet movie. The struggling, lonely, frustrate growing pain of that wonderful innocent young man, that girl he fell in love with, "I got a gal, sweet as she can be, Raven is her name..." , a short but sweet song. Everybody in this movie performed so well and so natural. Just wish more people could enjoy this movie.

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.

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.

(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.

E.F. Bloodworth (Kristofferson) comes back to his old home in Tennessee after 40-years on the road. He left to pursue a musical career and virtually abandoned his young family. All are up in arms about his return.

This is misleading because you think the story is all about E.F. Well, it's not. It's really about his nephew Fleming (Thompson) who wants to leave the homestead too, but is trying to do it the right way, and not the way E.F. did, but to be fair, Fleming is not that conscious about it all. He just wants to do the right thing. He just wants out from a very dysfunctional family who stayed. E.F. is the background, Fleming is the real story and his story should have been developed more.

Wasted in here is Val Kilmer. Kilmer needs to find a vehicle to shine once more, but he seems content with small roles that go nowhere. Hillary Duff is a breath of fresh air, but it is Brady (Brown) who ignites (sorry for the pun, which you will understand if you see this movie) the story. His character's delivery is different, unique and solid.

To be honest we don't really get to know any of the characters. We get bits and pieces and we are left to read into things. And, because of that, we don't really care one way or the other what happens to any of them, including Fleming. We don't feel anyone's pain. And, being honest again, the story should not have shown E.F. as coming back. Just saying he came back would have been good enough as the family and others bad mouthed him anyway. We would have gotten the point. Why do I say that? Because we expected more from the Kristofferson (E.F.) character and didn't get it. Like I said, this was misleading.

Violence: Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: Yes.