Promised Land

ABSOLUTE MADNESS
This is a soft hitting environmental film. Steve Butler (Matt Damon) represents Global which wants to buy the gas drilling rights to a town. He is from a farming community, but can't drive a stick shift. He is also ill informed of the dangers of fracking. His partner is Sue (Frances McDormand) a working mom who tries to parent from Skype. In the town of Miller's Falls, they meet resistance from Frank (Hal Holbrook) the local science teacher and an environmental activist (John Krasinski).

Rob (Titus Welliver) who owns Rob's Guns and Groceries is sweet on Sue while flirty school teacher Alice (Rosemarie DeWitt) sparks Matt's love interest. The film uses stock cardboard characters to create a nice feel good tale. There is a twist at the end that wasn't too much of a shock. The farmer's have to decide if they want to sell the rights and risk losing their land to environmental poisoning, or wait and lose the land due to poverty as government subsidies dwindle and market prices...

Addressing Environmental Issues
Interesting to note all the negative reviews for PROMISED LAND. Perhaps that is because people expected some big explosion of a story when all that is here is a bit of everyday happenings that accompany this country's struggle with environmental issues. It is a quiet film, exceedingly well written based on a story from Dave Eggers, by Matt Damon and Jon Krasinski who happen to also star in their brainchild - an honest, funny, entertaining, and sensitive tale in the way it plays out the issues and comes up with a surprise ending.

Corporate salesman for Global Enterprises Steve Butler (Matt Damon) arrives in a rural Pennsylvania town with his sales partner, Sue Thomason (Frances McDormand, in one of the finest performances in the film): the two enjoy a warmly written and quite unassuming relationship. Global is a company that drills (read `fracks') for natural gas as alternative fuel form to replace the degrading effects of oil and gasoline on the environment. With the town...

Promised Land Review
Promised Land (2012) - Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting), John Krasinski (The Office), Frances McDormand, Rosemarie DeWitt, Titus Welliver, Hal Holbrook

This film was an Oscar contender and is the first time Matt Damon has written a script since his Oscar win for Good Will Hunting. It centers around a ladder climber at a company called Global Crosspower Solutions, an energy company which deals in natural gas. He goes to a small town with his partner (Frances McDormand) in order to get the town to sign over rights so that his company may begin fracking for natural gas. He is surprised when he encounters resistance from the townsfolk, who are aided by an environmentalist with an axe to grind (Krasinski).

Should you buy it? At times the film can be a bit preachy. It's a well told story, with a couple of nice twists and ultimately a nice little character study. There are political undertones both overt and subtle which astute viewers can pick up on but which aren't 100%...

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