Fatuous twaddle posing as a
really deep consideration of what's wrong with our crazy, mixed-up world, Matthew Ryan Hoge's slick but deeply dumb film unfolds in a picture-perfect suburb of Anywheresville, USA. Teenaged Leland P. Fitzgerald (Ryan Gosling), son of a world-famous novelist (Kevin Spacey), is arrested for the shocking murder of a mentally challenged youngster. The shocking part is that Leland wasn't a troublemaker: A quiet, studious loner, he had befriended the dead boy and was dating his troubled junkie sister, Becca (Jena Malone). Remanded to a local juvenile facility, Leland meets aspiring novelist Pearl Madison (Don Cheadle), who underwrites his...
Released:
2003
Rated:
R
Length:
104 mins