Abundant Acreage Available

The best actor cannot revive a dying plot, sterile and hopeless.

This story concept had potential, i.e. one possibility was older scamsters/crooks taking advantage of a brother & sister left w/a farm they were raised on and having monetary value unknown to them. Also, that a hard working life on a farm has rewards beyond money. Instead we are left w/a lot of arguing; looking at cremated ashes; the ubiquitous smoking scenes in film (didn't make sense here since they would only smoke a couple of times which smokers don't do). No signs of cigs anywhere else. The real negatives are: 1. The male brother dominates (makes final decisions) over his supposedly equal partner sister in the farm. More female submissiveness, and negatively she's displayed losing her cool quite a few times. 2. Brother says, "God determines your life whatever it is to be. Everyday I work to forgive myself, we're only human. I know my Lord forgives me, that's all we can do." This guilt & fatalistic view from religions that life, it's problems & solutions are not in our hands is a quitters belief - there is always something one can do to make the planet & it's inhabitants better off. The easiest is to not be consumer fixated and use the money to improve any & everything.

The acting was fantastic. The setting was beautiful. The potential for this story was immense. I liked exploring the different venues and patterns of grief based on religion. I don't know who is responsible for the rating of PG this was given on Peacock but the language and vulgarity, though not continuous, was extreme when it did occur. PG13 or maybe even R would be much more appropriate. As is so often the case, the special needs man was portrayed as crass, which gets old for special needs families like ours. Overall, I would say I am glad I watched this movie and appreciated the depth and variety of the raw and differing emotions of grief, but am also glad I did not watch it with my 12 year old daughter.

Backed by Scorsese, writer and director Angus Maclachlin shows the brilliance possible in independent film. In Abundant Acreage, MacLachlin creates a cinema-graphically rich portrayal of a multi-generational family whose own comedic tragedy is interrupted by a band of interlopers. Simply beautiful. What an immersive film experience of laughter, tears, and drama is all about. You want every person in America to see this film. (....and then go watch Junebug, MacLaghlin's acclaimed 2005 Drama/Comedy)

Country life. It's pretty slow most of the time. What I found noteworthy was how a very Christian culture, played by the older brother, tends to react when the previous 'nonreligious' caretakers decide to shake things up and reconcile their history with this piece of land.