''As I Lay Dying'' is a 2013 American
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
directed and co-written by and starring
James Franco
James Edward Franco (born April 19, 1978) is an American actor and filmmaker. For his role in '' 127 Hours'' (2010), he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Franco is known for his roles in films, such as Sam Raimi's ''Spider-Ma ...
, based on
William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most of ...
's 1930
novel of the same name. The film was screened in the
Un Certain Regard
(, meaning 'a certain glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob.
The section presents 20 films w ...
Section at the
2013 Cannes Film Festival
The 66th Cannes Film Festival took place in Cannes, France, from 15 to 26 May 2013. Steven Spielberg was the head of the jury for the main competition. New Zealand film director Jane Campion was the head of the jury for the Cinéfondation and S ...
.
Premise
The story is based on the loss of a mother and the struggles the family endure by going the distance to her burial ground in her home town.
Cast
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James Franco
James Edward Franco (born April 19, 1978) is an American actor and filmmaker. For his role in '' 127 Hours'' (2010), he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Franco is known for his roles in films, such as Sam Raimi's ''Spider-Ma ...
as Darl Bundren
*
Logan Marshall-Green
Logan Marshall-Green (born November 1, 1976) is an American actor and director. He is known for his roles in the television series ''24 (TV series), 24'', ''The O.C.'', ''Traveler (2007 TV series), Traveler'', ''Dark Blue (TV series), Dark Blue' ...
as Jewel Bundren
*
Danny McBride
Daniel Richard McBride (born December 29, 1976) is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter and producer. He starred in the HBO television series '' Eastbound & Down'', ''Vice Principals'', and ''The Righteous Gemstones'', also co-creating the ...
as Vernon Tull
*
Tim Blake Nelson
Timothy Blake Nelson (born May 11, 1964) is an American actor and playwright.
Described as a "modern character actor", his roles include Delmar O'Donnell in ''O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' (2000), Gideon in ''Minority Report'' (2002), Dr. Pendan ...
as Anse Bundren
*
Ahna O'Reilly
Ahna O'Reilly is an American actress. She is best known for her role in the film ''The Help'' (2011).
Career
O'Reilly began her acting career in 2003 in the film, ''Bill the Intern''. She has appeared in several other movies like ''Dinocroc'', ' ...
as Dewey Dell Bundren
*
Beth Grant
Beth Grant (born September 18, 1949) is an American character actress. Between 2012 and 2017, she was a series regular on the television comedy ''The Mindy Project'' in the role of Beverly Janoszewski. She is also known for her role as Gracie L ...
as Addie Bundren
*
Jim Parrack
Jim Parrack (born February 8, 1981) is an American actor best known for his role as Hoyt Fortenberry in HBO series ''True Blood''. He has also appeared in the film '' Battle: Los Angeles'' and as "Slim" in the 2014 Broadway production of ''Of M ...
as Cash Bundren
*
Jesse Heiman
Jesse Wayne Heiman (born May 23, 1978) is an American actor and comedian, best known for his uncredited work as an extra in a wide variety of films and television shows. He is also known for appearing in a GoDaddy commercial at Super Bowl XLVII, ...
as Jody
*
Scott Haze
Scott Haze (born June 28, 1983) is an American actor and filmmaker.
Known for his role in the 2013 film, ''Child of God'', where he played the role of Lester Ballard, sleeping in a cave for months and losing 45 pounds for his role in the adaptat ...
as Skeet MacGowan
Production
James Franco
James Edward Franco (born April 19, 1978) is an American actor and filmmaker. For his role in '' 127 Hours'' (2010), he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Franco is known for his roles in films, such as Sam Raimi's ''Spider-Ma ...
decided to write a screenplay of the novel with a fellow Yale graduate student Matt Rager. The novel ''
As I Lay Dying
''As I Lay Dying'' is a 1930 Southern Gothic novel by American author William Faulkner. Faulkner's fifth novel, it is consistently ranked among the best novels of 20th-century literature.The New Lifetime Reading Plan: The Classical Guide to Wor ...
'' was described as a story impossible to be transformed into a film due to the
multi-narrative Multiperspectivity (sometimes polyperspectivity) is a characteristic of narration or representation, where more than one perspective is represented to the audience.
Most frequently the term is applied to fiction which employs multiple narrators, ...
voices within it.
Franco saw this as a challenge and chose to depict the many voices through choices of styling, through camera edits. Faulkner told the story in a chorus of voices: 15 narrators in the 59 chapters.
To locate an equivalent for the novel’s polyphonal scheme, Franco employed the use of narrative expressed through dialogue and voice overs.
Release
The film was originally scheduled for a theatrical release on September 27, 2013 but Millennium Films scrapped the plans. It was released on October 22, 2013 to iTunes and November 5, 2013 to DVD/VOD platforms.
Reception
The film received mixed reviews from critics, with praise and criticism focused on Franco's methods of presenting Faulkner's complex narrative. It holds a 40% approval rating on review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, based on 30 reviews with an average rating of 4.7/10.
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
gives the film a weighted average score of 50 out of 100, based on 13 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Kyle Smith of the ''
New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com.
It was established ...
'' was very harsh, declaring, "Franco dilutes the drama with first-year-film-student gimmicks, like split screens and slow motion, it just seems like a dull collection of pointless monologues from actors who can’t even be bothered to match up their accents."
A. O. Scott of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' said, "But in rushing in where wise men might fear to tread, Mr. Franco has accomplished something serious and worthwhile. His ''As I Lay Dying'' is certainly ambitious, but it is also admirably modest. The script, written by Mr. Franco with Matt Rager, tries to pare Faulkner's multivoiced narrative to a manageable essence."
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:As I Lay Dying
2013 films
2013 drama films
2013 direct-to-video films
Films based on works by William Faulkner
American drama films
Films directed by James Franco
Films based on American novels
2010s English-language films
2010s American films