Review 558: Promised Land

Promised Land is a  drama film

Steve Butler (Matt Damon) is a corporate salesman whose journey from farm boy to big-time player takes an unexpected detour when he's dispatched to the small rural town of McKinley with his sales partner, Sue Thomason (Frances McDormand). The town has been hit hard by the economic decline of recent years, and the two consummate sales executives see McKinley's citizens as likely to accept their company's offer - for drilling rights to their properties - as much-needed relief. What seems like an easy job and a short stay for the duo becomes complicated - professionally by calls for community-wide consideration of the offer by respected schoolteacher Frank Yates (Hal Holbrook) and personally by Steve's encounter with Alice (Rosemarie DeWitt). When Dustin Noble (John Krasinski), a slick environmental activist, arrives, suddenly the stakes, both personal and professional, rise to the boiling point.

Normally in these types of films it's the townsfolk who are the focus and the big coporations are the obligatory antagonists. In Promised Land, the shoe is smartly on the other foot. Steve Butler, Sue Thomason and Dustin Noble are outsiders who are out of their element and are doing the best that they can to win the locals over and gain their trust 

And then we get to the conclusion of the this film, there's a certain twist regarding the rivalry between Steve and Dustin that was completely unexpected and

Director Gus Van Sant's direction is terrific, it goes by at a pretty brisk pace, the Pennsylvania setting is attractive and winsome, the score by Dany Elfman is  the cinematography is

Matt Damon

Frances McDormand  Sue and Steve have a distinct rapport and are very much a yin and yang. Whereas Steve is very much an idealist, Sue is arguably much more pragmatic in her approach.

Rosemarie DeWitt is lovely and charming perfromance playing Alice, a local schoolteacher who catches Steve's eye.

John Krasinski  He's one of those characters who outwardly seems very nice with good intentions

Titus Welliver, Scoot McNairy and Hal Holbrook round out the cast with affecting performances

4/5.

The Anonymous Critic.