American Pastoral

Parental Rating: R

Contains: Language    Violence    Sex    Adult Content    

Jill's Review

Opens October 21, 2016

Runs 108 minutes

Seymour "Swede" Levov (Ewan McGregor) had a pleasant childhood. He grew up to be a star athlete at his high school and to follow in his Father Lou's (Peter Riegert) foot steps at his glove factory. He married the girl of his dreams - Miss New Jersey, Dawn (Jennifer Connelly) and they moved to the countryside to live a nice, normal life. They had one daughter Merry (Dakota Fanning) and they doted on her. But things were not as good as they appeared on the surface. Merry developed a terrible stutter (her therapist attributed it to the fact that she could never be as beautiful as her Mother) and that left her feeling adrift and friendless. Her parents tried to give her everyting that she could want but her resentment festered. Soon, she was hanging out with anti-war radicals. When a terrible bombing kills the local postman, Merry goes on the run. Her parents cannot accept that she had anything to do with the bombing. But, it appears that she was involved. Dawn eventually has a breakdown and then chooses to forget that she ever had a daughter but Swede finds it hard to give up on her. The family will never recover from Merry's involvement in this despicable act.

This movie is based on Philip Roth's novel and it is Ewan McGregor's directorial debut. I really liked it. I left the theatre feeling depressed and sad. The movie really got to me. I thought everyone did a great job, especially Dakota Fanning. I really disliked her character. She had the resentful, sneering teenager down pat. I had not read the novel so the story was new to me. The film played almost like a thriller. I was drawn into the story and I thought the movie was well-acted and looked stunning. Overall, a very good movie. Go see it!

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