Michael Shannon & Shea Wigham both pick interesting movies & having loved them both in the movie Take Shelter I was keen to watch this. While it isn't quite what I hoped it would be, it was still a fine picture.
This movie doesn't play by the rules. What I thought Wigham's mystery man to be, isn't quite what he was. What I thought would be a pivotal scene wasn't, and what I didn't expect to be was. I enjoyed this kind of subdued emotional teeter-totter, the symbology that pops up, and Shannon, Wigham & Bobby Soto's performances. I think a better ending though would have been for Wigham's nameless character to stumble away from the "climax" of the film, walking in a stupor for awhile before collapsing on the side of the road where the preacher again picks him up in his van, revealing him to be either in a purgatory where he's being tested or a self-directed hell.
This movie doesn't play by the rules. What I thought Wigham's mystery man to be, isn't quite what he was. What I thought would be a pivotal scene wasn't, and what I didn't expect to be was. I enjoyed this kind of subdued emotional teeter-totter, the symbology that pops up, and Shannon, Wigham & Bobby Soto's performances. I think a better ending though would have been for Wigham's nameless character to stumble away from the "climax" of the film, walking in a stupor for awhile before collapsing on the side of the road where the preacher again picks him up in his van, revealing him to be either in a purgatory where he's being tested or a self-directed hell.