Leaves of Grass (film)
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''Leaves of Grass'' is a 2009 American
black comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the olde ...
written and directed by
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 ...
. It stars
Edward Norton Edward Harrison Norton (born August 18, 1969) is an American actor and filmmaker. He has received numerous awards and nominations, including a Golden Globe Award and three Academy Award nominations. Born in Boston, Massachusetts and raised ...
as twin brothers, alongside
Richard Dreyfuss Richard Stephen Dreyfuss (; born Dreyfus; October 29, 1947) is an American actor. He is known for starring in popular films during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, including ''American Graffiti'' (1973), ''Jaws'' (1975), ''Close Encounters of the T ...
, Nelson,
Susan Sarandon Susan Abigail Sarandon (; née Tomalin; born October 4, 1946) is an American actorMcCabe, Bruce"Susan Sarandon, the 'actor'" ''Boston Globe''. April 17, 1981. Retrieved January 21, 2021. and activist. She is the recipient of various accolades, ...
,
Melanie Lynskey Melanie Jayne Lynskey ( ; born 16 May 1977) is a New Zealand actress widely known for her portrayals of complex women in several independent films and television shows and also known for her command of American dialects. Lynskey is the recipi ...
and
Keri Russell Keri Lynn Russell (born March 23, 1976) is an American actress. She portrayed the titular character on the drama series ''Felicity (TV series), Felicity'' (1998–2002), which won her a Golden Globe Award, and Elizabeth Jennings (The Americans), ...
. Set in Nelson's home state of
Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...
, most of the film was actually filmed in northwestern
Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
, which was selected for its generous film production incentives. There were a few scenes that were filmed in Tulsa, Ok. Leaves of Grass was featured at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival, and had a limited domestic release by First Look Studios on just six screen April 2, 2010. It failed to impress at the domestic box office, earning a meager in ticket sales against a production budget of . Critical reception was slightly positive, but mixed. The film fared much better internationally, earning .


Plot

Bill Kincaid (
Edward Norton Edward Harrison Norton (born August 18, 1969) is an American actor and filmmaker. He has received numerous awards and nominations, including a Golden Globe Award and three Academy Award nominations. Born in Boston, Massachusetts and raised ...
) is lecturing his class at Brown University about Plato's Socratic dialogues. Meanwhile, Bill's identical twin brother Brady Kincaid (also played by Edward Norton) is living in Oklahoma, growing and selling hydroponic cannabis. Brady is under pressure from local drug lord Pug Rothbaum (
Richard Dreyfuss Richard Stephen Dreyfuss (; born Dreyfus; October 29, 1947) is an American actor. He is known for starring in popular films during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, including ''American Graffiti'' (1973), ''Jaws'' (1975), ''Close Encounters of the T ...
) to expand his sales. Despite needing money to repay a debt to Rothbaum, Brady refuses. After a phone call from Brady's partner Bolger (
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 ...
) telling him that Brady has died from a crossbow arrow, Bill flies to Tulsa, meeting a Jewish orthodontist on the plane. In Tulsa, Bill is mistaken for Brady and is beaten up and knocked unconscious by rival marijuana dealers angry that Brady has taken half their territory. When Bill wakes, he finds that Brady is alive and has tricked him into travelling to Tulsa. Brady asks Bill to pretend to be Brady while he goes up state to "take care" of Rothbaum. Bill initially refuses, but later agrees, after meeting local poet Janet (
Keri Russell Keri Lynn Russell (born March 23, 1976) is an American actress. She portrayed the titular character on the drama series ''Felicity (TV series), Felicity'' (1998–2002), which won her a Golden Globe Award, and Elizabeth Jennings (The Americans), ...
) as he wants to stay and get to know her better. While Bill (pretending to be Brady) visits their mother, thus giving Brady an alibi, Bolger and Brady go to a synagogue in Tulsa, where Rothbaum is listening to a sermon. Also present is Ken Feinman (
Josh Pais Joshua Atwill Pais (born June 21, 1958) is an American actor and acting coach. He has appeared in the films ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' (1990), ''Music of the Heart'' (1999), '' Assassination of a High School President'' (2008), '' I Saw the ...
), the orthodontist Bill met on the plane. He sees Brady and mistakes him for Bill. Brady and Bolger leave with Rothbaum, and Rothbaum demands the money Brady owes him. When Rothbaum threatens to kill them if they don't pay up, Bolger shoots Rothbaum's thugs, and Brady stabs Rothbaum, killing him. In Tulsa, Ken Feinman hears of Rothbaum's murder and figures everything out. He purchases a gun and sets off for Brady's house, where he encounters Bill and Brady and threatens to shoot them. Bill takes the gun from him but Ken panics and uses Bolger's rifle to shoot Brady, after which Bill shoots Ken in retaliation. Before dying, Brady tells Bill to place the gun in his hand, which Bill does. After an abortive attempt to sell Brady's dope-growing system to one of Brady's former rivals, Bill is shot through the chest by a crossbow. Bolger frantically drives him to hospital, saving Bill's life, and thereby repaying his debt to Brady (who had saved his life in prison). Bill is forced to stay in Tulsa for a long recuperation after his injury, allowing him time to heal his relationship with his mother and develop his romance with Janet.


Cast


Credited songs


Release

The film premiered at the
2009 Toronto International Film Festival The 34th annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 10 and September 19, 2009. The opening night gala presented the Charles Darwin biography ''Creation''. ''The Young Victoria'', based ...
. Film critic
Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
stated that he considered it his favorite of the festival. The film was not picked up for distribution at TIFF, so producer
Avi Lerner Avinoam Lerner ( he, אבי לרנר; born 13 October 1947) is an Israeli-American film producer, primarily of American action movies. Lerner is the founder and CEO of Millennium Films. Life and career Avi Lerner was born in Haifa, Israel), on ...
planned to release it on April 2, 2010 through his own
First Look Studios First Look Studios was a former American independent film distributor, that specialized in home video releases of films and television series. History In 1980, Robert and Ellen Little founded Overseas Filmgroup as a film sales company for forei ...
. This plan was abandoned on April 1 when
Telepathic Studios Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic W ...
gave Lerner enough funds to give the film a wider Summer 2010 release, due to positive reception at
South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...
. For unknown reasons, this plan was also scrapped; ultimately, ''Leaves of Grass'' debuted theatrically on just six screens, grossing a little over $1 million worldwide. DVD and Blu-ray versions of the film were released on October 12, 2010, and an extended edition is sold exclusively on Blu-ray with an additional 46 minutes of content.


Critical response

''Leaves of Grass'' received mixed reviews from film critics, with praise being given to Norton's dual performance.
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 ...
reports that 61% of 38 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average score of 5.66/10. The website's critical consensus states that "Edward Norton delivers one of his finest performances in Leaves of Grass, but he's overpowered by the movie's many jarring tonal shifts."
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 ...
, assigned the film a weighted average score of 58 out of 100, based on reviews from 10 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". "Leaves of Grass has the structure and the elements of a classical Greek drama: There's treachery, mistaken identity, deadly plots, and ambition; that it takes place in the middle of Oklahoma is almost irrelevant", said Paul Constant.
Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
gave the film four out of four stars, and stated that "Tim Blake Nelson's "Leaves of Grass" is some kind of sweet, wacky masterpiece. It takes all sorts of risks, including a dual role with Edward Norton playing twin brothers, and it pulls them off." He closed his review with "Here's a quote for the video box: "One of the year's best!" No, Tim Blake Nelson...thank you." Gary Goldstein of the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' also gave a positive review, particularly praising that "Edward Norton turns in not just one but two terrific performances in "Leaves of Grass," an offbeat thriller that is deepened — rather than derailed — by its tricky shift from darkly funny to just plain dark." He also praised Richard Dreyfuss, Susan Sarandon, and Josh Pais for their performances. Neil Genzlinger 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 ...
'' gave it an "NYT Critics' Pick", and particular praised the actors, saying "Mr. Norton is a pleasure to watch, and so is everyone else." He also approved of how the "film keeps you deliciously off-balance: it’s funny and unnerving at the same time." Lisa Schwarzbaum of ''
Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'' stated that "the movie bubbles with intellectual curiosity and narrative ambition. And for that I dig it, even if Leaves of Grass has the habit of swerving and sometimes lurching from tone to tone." She praised the acting of Norton and Keri Russell. On an A to F scale, she gave the film a B+. The film was not without its detractors. Dennis Harvey of ''
Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' stated that "Nelson's script isn't blackly comic or deep enough to successfully accommodate the introduction of jarring violence," and criticized the subplot of Pais' character, Dreyfuss' performance, and the "perfunctory" romance between Norton and Russell. He strongly praised Norton's acting, stating that his dual-role "is very much the main attraction, and reward, of 'Leaves of Grass.'", and also praised Nelson's acting, stating that "Nelson himself provides the most valuable support in the colorful if variable cast." Rex Reed of ''
New York Observer New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
'' was extremely critical, particularly of Nelson, saying "It’s just another oblique backfire from Tim Blake Nelson, whose work as a writer-director in general wallows in a bog of mediocrity" and that "Nelson, a cornball actor at best, is over the top as a larcenous Pa Kettle of a redneck sidekick." He finished his review stating that "The mirror-has-two-faces-idea is nothing new. From
Bette Davis Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress with a career spanning more than 50 years and 100 acting credits. She was noted for playing unsympathetic, sardonic characters, and was famous for her pe ...
in '' Dead Ringer'' to
Sam Rockwell Sam Rockwell (born November 5, 1968) is an American actor. He is known for appearing in independent films and also as a character actor portraying a wide variety of roles both comedic and dramatic in films such as '' Lawn Dogs'' (199 ...
in ''
Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
'', dozens of seasoned actors have lit each other’s cigarettes while the audience thinks it’s seeing double, and they’ve done it in much better pictures than this one. In ''Leaves of Grass'', it seems irrelevant and recycled—essentially nothing more than a gimmick that wears out fast." He gave the film a rating of two out of four.


References


External links

* * {{Tim Blake Nelson 2009 films 2009 black comedy films 2000s crime comedy-drama films American black comedy films American crime comedy-drama films Films about drugs Films about dysfunctional families Films about educators Films about twin brothers Films directed by Tim Blake Nelson Films scored by Jeff Danna Films set in Oklahoma Films set in Rhode Island Films shot in Louisiana 2009 comedy films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films