SnoopyStyle It's 1986. Jack Slavin (Daniel Day-Lewis) and his young daughter Rose (Camilla Belle) live in blissful isolation on a former island commune off the east coast. They defend ferociously the local wetland against land developer neighbor Marty Rance (Beau Bridges). He invites Kathleen (Catherine Keener) to live with them and she brings along her sons, Rodney (Ryan McDonald) and Thaddius (Paul Dano). Rose is immediately jealous and tries unsuccessfully to seduce Rodney. Red Berry (Jena Malone) arrives bringing candy for Rodney and sex for Thaddius.The opening act confused me with a seemingly disturbing Jack and Rose relationship. It doesn't help that Rose acts like a jealous lover. It turns into an interesting sexual coming-of-age story for Rose as she tries to seduce the new men in her life. Then the last act leaves Jack and Rose back as a weird awkward couple. It's slightly off-putting. The whole movie is filled with interesting performers and slightly off-putting. It's not fulfilling but it does have some interesting bits and pieces.

phd_travel I watched this because Daniel Day Lewis is a great actor. But unfortunately the writer his wife Rebecca Miller isn't a great story teller. This is a mildly depressing and uninteresting story about a father and daughter living by themselves isolated from the world in a former commune, fighting against encroaching development and the conflict that arises when the father tries to bring his girlfriend and her sons to live with them. The acting is good especially from Catherine Keener as the understanding girlfriend and Camilla Belle as the sheltered daughter. In the end I really don't care about such screwed up people and I don't think too many people will either. To Daniel Day Lewis - please stick to proper movie roles. This one was a real let down.

isabelle1955 It's 1986. Jack is a superannuated hippy, still trying to live the good life on an island off the east coast of Canada. Rose is his sheltered daughter, teetering on the brink of sexual self discovery, and spending far too much time without the company of peers. They inhabit an old commune that Jack established and owns, but which everyone else has fled, leaving them constantly in each other's company. Now that Jack is dying of some vague heart ailment, and his daughter is threatening to die with him, he wants to bring in a substitute, a girl friend who will be part lover, part nurse-maid, and part belated mother to his daughter. Needless to say, his best laid plans go badly awry.Firstly I'd like to comment on the positives of this film. I thought the cinematography very good. Ellen Kuras delivers a beautiful portrait of the island, the ocean around it and the flower and fruit filled garden, which gives the viewer a keen sense of why these people might have wanted to spend so many years in virtual isolation here. She sets the scene for a symbolic Garden of Eden, pristine and lovely (I think they must have been lucky with the weather on this shoot!) with Rose as director Miller's Eve, which contrasts nicely with the all too down to earth, clay footed reality of the characters who inhabit it. The acting is good too. Daniel Day Lewis as Jack is a gaunt, dying, control freak who seems to age fifteen years in the course of the movie without any apparent assistance from the make-up department. Camilla Belle as Rose occasionally looks a little self conscious but is mostly believable – and I loved her clothes, I thought they captured her look just right. Living as I do near the long lost, hippy paradise of Santa Cruz, I've seen many Rose types, raised by earth mothers and self obsessed, aging, hippy fathers and they all dress like that, the long dress over the jeans, boots and long, split ended hair in desperate need of a trim. It was well observed.But even idealist Jack occasionally needs to escape from his pristine world where he's raising his adoring daughter, for some mainland bonking with girl friend Kathleen (Catherine Keener), and he rashly invites her to come live with him, bringing her two teenage sons and her mainland expectations. Money is involved so it's not exactly an act of loving altruism on either side. Rose is not consulted on this 'experiment', Jack seems to think the sheer force of his personality will make it work. I spent part of this movie wondering why all the original inhabitants of the commune - including Rose's mother - left. The answer is easy; Jack.The newcomers are expected to fit into his world and this was where I felt the movie was least believable. Jack seems like an intelligent man, did he really think they would all be sitting around the fire singing Kumbayaa? He has known this woman all of 4 months and barely knows the sons at all. Jack seems contemptuous of Kathleen's cooking and make-up. Hadn't he noticed before? The sons expect TV, and in the case of one, sex. Rose goes overnight from living alone in a borderline incestuous relationship with dad, baking pies and learning the Latin names of plants, to sharing a house with three strangers, and she is naturally just a little put out. She realizes dad and Kathleen are lovers and in retaliation for what she sees as his disloyalty, and in her jealousy of Kathleen, throws herself at the boys. Sweet Rodney (Ryan McDonald) is gay and politely declines, giving her a much needed haircut instead (almost as good, he observes ironically.) But skinny, devious Thaddius (Paul Dano - so good in Little Miss Sunshine) is all too ready to oblige. In the contretemp which follows the deflowering, during a retro party, Thaddius ends up being thrown from a window breaking several limbs.And what really sealed the fate of the movie for me, was that despite this near manslaughter of her son, mom Kathleen came back to Jack for more of the same. Only more money finally persuades her to leave for good, so that Rose can tend her father alone on his deathbed, and burn him and the house in a final act of heavy handed symbolism. Will she or will she not commit Suttee and burn with him? At the end of this movie I was left with absolutely no sympathy for any of the adults, but reflecting instead on the myriad different ways parents abuse their kids. My only real surprise is that kids end up as sane as they do. Jack and Kathleen deserve each other. He raises his daughter in some idealistic and isolated vision he has of the world, then dumps three total strangers on her as a surrogate family. Kathleen drags her sons away from their regular lives because a dying man who may or may not love her, has offered her money. I wouldn't describe either of them as engaging, sympathetic characters. I felt far more sympathy for the kids, and whilst we are shown a brief, and rather pat, coda of Rose moving on to a new life in a new commune, the fate of Rodney and Thaddius is apparently of no interest after this jarring episode in their young lives. Hopefully Rodney opens a salon in New York and becomes a millionaire. He's the only one with any sense of humor.The film is also tiringly slow in places, and had me occasionally glancing at my watch. I watched it on DVD at home; not entirely an evening wasted but a sharper script and more believable story line would have improved it immensely.

jackjack-2 I should have known better. Any movie with Catherine Keener is going to be a stinker and this one was. The story did not make a lot of sense to begin with and it is presented in rather piece meal fashion so that it jerks a long without smooth transitions. The movie really falls apart at the end.Aside from Keener's less than mediocre performance, it was often difficult to understand what Daniel Day-Lewis, the father is saying, because of his heavy Scottish accent. Sub-titles would have been appropriate. It is a very dreary story with little suspense or excitement and a waste of time.