Mud - quick review (1 Viewer)

[Patrick Sun]

"Mud" is a solid "coming-of-age" tale featuring 2 teen boys, Ellis and Neckbone, living in Arkansas, come across Mud (Matthew McConaughey), who's on the run, and finding some shelter in a boat stuck in a tree. The boys end up trying to help Mud get the boat out of the tree, but Mud's past makes for ominous undertones from the people looking for him to exact some retribution.

Ellis is the focal point of the film, his own home life crumbling as his parents are splitting up, and their home-boat is on the way to being cut loose in the impending divorce. Ellis is somewhat of a romantic, not quite able to deal with new-found feelings for the opposite sex, and ends up imposing such feelings on Mud's story to garner the motivation to help him out, even though it proves dangerous for him and Neckbone.

I give it 3 stars, or a grade of B.

 

[Michael Elliott]

I'd go *** 1/2 on this one.

I really thought it was a nice, touching little gem with some excellent performances. I was really shocked at how great Tye Sheridan was and especially when you consider he's the lead and carrying the film. It was also great seeing Witherspoon getting out of the bad romantic comedies and back into the type of films I fell in love with her talents in. The supporting players were also extremely good and especially Sam Shepard. As for McConaughey, he's really becoming one of the best actors out there and it seems he's done with wanting to be a "star" and now wants to be great at something. BERNIE, KILLER JOE, THE PAPERBOY and now this..... Really impressive and apparently his best performance is coming later in the year.

I thought the Southern atmosphere was perfectly nailed by the director and he certainly kept you involved in everything that was going on.

The only flaw in the film was a somewhat long running time, which I think could have been improved how they taken out the subplot dealing with:

Spoiler

The entire bounty hunter thing. I thought this added very little to the picture and it led up to a rather disappointing ending with the shootout. I think they also should have kept whether McConaughey lived or not a secret.

 

[mattCR]

Michael, I agree with you entirely on the spoiler; but on the whole I thought this was a pleasantly well filmed flick that made for a great late show. Solid B