Meadowland

source: Meadowland

Henry David Thoreau wrote of people who lead "lives of quiet desperation." This film is a literal enactment of Thoreau's words. "Meadowland" tells the harrowing story of parents who have lost a child. In an unremarkable stop at a gas station, Sarah and Phil wait for their son to come out of the bathroom. But he has decided to use the back door and go off exploring. But the child never comes back. The film moves forward to a year after the disappearance with the parents struggling with their grief and anxiety. The intensity of the emotional anguish registers in every moment of the film, as Sarah and Phil attempt to carry on their lives as an English teacher and a police officer. The film explores the phenomenon of displacement as Sarah becomes overly involved with a student at her elementary school and Phil loses his boundaries when getting the address of the drunken driver for a member of his support group. In their own ways, Sarah and Phil are lost souls. The film is successful in developing compassion for people who are suffering emotional trauma. The realistic details are astounding, especially with Tim, the soft-spoken brother of Phil, who always seems to be searching for words. One of the best scenes in the film occurs on the apartment rooftop where Tim shares his dope with Sarah and recognizes that she has made an attempt on her life. He cannot find anything to say to comfort her, but the empathy registers on his face and in his body language. This and other scenes tell the poignant story of lives of quiet desperation and the battles that humans are fighting inside that are often unknown to the insensitive outside world.

Meadowlands is outstanding on many levels. It had a risk of being unbalanced and overly melodramatic or otherwise missing the point of the reality of what the film -through the writer- intended to convey which was the story of people who do go through this reality. While it had flaws if you looked hard for them, what stood out was what could be attributed to the direction, sound score, cinematic filming, and balanced overall presentation of the story. The actors all did what really talented actors can do. It was a very well done and worth seeing film. (Well, need more lines to submit review.) Regarding two things worth mentioning, The camera work was with a very fast lens and the ending scene was outstanding in how it brought the story to a conclusion.

This film tells the story of a married couple, whose young son disappeared in a petrol station, right under their noses. They react and grief in very different ways. The name "Meadowland" doesn't reveal anything away, so the plot remains a secret to be revealed. As the plot unfolds, the vastly diverging journeys of the two adults become very gripping and engaging. What they have to go through is devastating, and I do feel for them. The mother's denial and maladaptive coping is so heart wrenchingly played by Olivia Wilde. She is the true star of the film. The ending is very effective and communicates without words. I'm moved by this story.

It's a year since Sarah (Olivia Wilde) and Philip (Luke Wilson) lost their son Jessie who disappeared after going to a gas station bathroom. She's a teacher in NYC and he's a policeman. She becomes obsessed with the outcast special-needs student Adam and his foster parents (Elisabeth Moss, Kevin Corrigan). Philip's screw-up brother Tim (Giovanni Ribisi) is staying with them. Philip is going to a support group. Sarah insists that Jessie is alive and is spiraling downwards. Olivia Wilde delivers a quietly devastating performance. Her obsession with Adam is compelling. Philip deserves to have someone to concentrate his lost on just like Sarah. He seems to have a scattering of characters to interact with. He's a cop which should be easy for him to fixate on one victim. His side of the story isn't as compelling. This is Wilde's movie and she delivers.

This movie makes me feel humble and in reverence. The subject of the story about a missing child is very delicately portrayed. Definitely not a popcornmovie nor is it a sentimental tearjerker. It is as real as it gets... The story is about a couple who have lost their child and for months on end are at loss over the uncertaintity about the whereabouts of their child. Meadowland is a real rough diamant, wrapped in breathtaking grief though, so only watch it if you are up for a lot of repressed and twisted emotions. Meadowland is dedicated to the late father of the director. Is it the personal loss of the director's father that made this movie so heartwrenchingly beautiful? "Meadowland" really comes across as a personal tale of grief... Meadowland easily found its way to my heart, because besides the grief there is healing to be found as well. And the healing part of the movie struck me as an uplifting, almost magical experience. For that reason I do want to recommend this picture very much...

I didn't believe for a second disappearance scene. It was literally 8 seconds between the closing of the bathroom door to the kid being gone. No camera at the gas station despite every damn gas station having multiple cameras. Then cut to a year later and Olivia was still acting as it happened a week ago. There was ZERO in between of the cops getting involved, mass search, media coverage. Overall it was so pretentiously heavy-handed and on-the-nose with few words, music-driven montages that wanted the audience to FEEL something, which I hate. Don't add music to try to manipulate our feelings, especially without it we wouldn't. Luke Wison, a lone cop without a partner? Didn't believe it. It was a total bore-fest. I had to skip to the weird ending after 40 minutes because I was bored to death.

If your feeling down in the dumps or there's a gloomy cloud hovering over your head then Meadowland is not the film you'll be wanting to watch, actually it's about as far away as what'd you'd want to be watching as you could imagine as one time D.O.P turned feature length director Reed Morano's film is one of the most dour films to come around in quite some time. The dour nature that imbeds itself into almost every single scene of this sometimes heart rendering bleak tale of grief, loss and heartache may be too much for some to bare but it's also in many ways Morano's greatest achievement, even though it doesn't make for typically entertaining viewing. Given a meatier role than she's normally afforded, Olivia Wilde does a commendable job as the lost mother of a missing boy Sarah and alongside the well casted if under used Luke Wilson as her equally lost husband Phil the two actors give Meadowland their all and tackle the hard subject matter with aplomb even though we're sadly as an audience never truly aloud into their characters inner sanctum which hurts the films overall emotional gut punches. Morano, as is the case with most first time directors, unfortunately fails to properly engage the audience into the films overall heart and soul and characters like Giovanni Ribisi's underused Tim and the odd appearance of Juno Temple's seductress like Mackenzie seem like missed opportunities while Sarah's odd feelings towards mentally handicapped school student Adam never really ring true especially towards the films last act and the film is undoubtedly at its strongest when the narrative focus's more intently on the plight of Sarah and Phil as they consider what may've become of their lost son and how they deal with the pain alongside each other. Sometimes powerful, often frustrating and always from the get go grey cloud gloomy, Meadowland is an impressive first up effort by Morano and features committed turns by the normally misused Olivia Wilde and sometimes auto piloted Luke Wilson that make it a film worthy of your time as long as you're willing to go along with its depressive nature. 3 stale car snacks out of 5

Those who didn't like the ending, or said it left them hanging, just didn't get it. First off, I think the movie was, most importantly, REAL. It was how real people, in the real world cope, not Hollywood people, or how Hollywood THINKS real people would. The real world is ugly, dirty, and selfish, but can also be beautiful, innocent, and full of wonder if you look at all of it and don't just focus on the negative. Its about a couple falling apart and doing things they normally would not do. With her the cutting, having sex with a stranger, smoking DMT, and listening to metal. Him, using his pull as a cop to find his meeting friend's daughter's killer's address. The loser brother-in-law whose life is a mess (doesn't everyone family have someone like this?). As for the ending, she promised to take him to Africa to see the elephants, but instead actually ends up finding him an elephant! And by doing so, she looks into the elephant's eyes and realizes that she lost her baby too. They lock eyes in mutual pain, loss, grieving, understanding. In that moment, she is able to connect with another mother who understands what it is like to lose a child. So he has his meetings, she got an elephant. What more do you want from an ending? Want to see if they let her adopt the kid? If she went back to teaching? She still is going to need a LOT of work, either years of therapy or group, an elephant can't fix broken. But anyway, who cares? That would be the boring part. May as well leave it on a high note.

I would have given this move 1 star, but I didn't want to be as cruel as the writer and director of this movie were to anyone who chose to watch this movie. Meadowland is boring, slow and unrealistic. I kept watching thinking this movie can't be this bad, the cast includes some really good actors, so I kept watching hoping it would get better, it didn't. The only interesting part was when Olivia Wilde's character is on the roof getting high with her brother-in-law, and she walks towards the ledge. I was thinking ok, good, she is about to jump to her death, finally some excitement, but alas, she doesn't jump. This is how boring this movie is! This is how much you won't care about these characters! Instead of them doing everything in their power to find their child, which is what any normal parent would do, these two just fall apart and are completely useless. I don't care if it's been a year, you never give up, you never stop fighting to find your kid. I ended up hating them both for their weaknesses. She spent way too much time doing dumb, unproductive, useless stuff. and hanging out with a child that was not hers, which would never have been allowed in the real world. Luke Wilson's character set Cops back 30 years by being portrayed as a crooked cop who would give the address of the man who was guilty of vehicular manslaughter, (for killing the daughter of one of his bereavement buddies), to the girl's father so he could get revenge. What the....! Really?! This movie was just an incredible waste of time, don't do it, you will be very disappointed.