Leaves of Grass

Leaves of Grass is a film that begins telling you exactly what it's about. However, we don't realize until the very end that that's what it was doing. The film is quite strange. Directed by the oddball Tim Blake Nelson and (through astonishing effects) acted by using Edward Norton as twin brothers. The first brother is Bill. He's an intellectual college professor of philosophy. One day he gets a call from Oklahoma that his brother Brady has been shot and killed with a crossbow. He's forced to leave the life he's been using to escape from his past, and return to the heart of discomfort. His brother Brady is a ne'er-do-well pot dealer. He's intelligent as well, but was never as motivated as Bill. Leaves of Grass is quite funny. It's strange but as the film goes on we realize that some of the things we found funny we shouldn't have. It's practically harrowing in its absurdity and melancholy. This is not a depressing movie, but a moving one. We learn so much about what these characters care about that we transcend the usual movie arks and attempt to understand why life is. One of the best scenes in the movie is where Brady explains his view of what God is. He says that God is like parallel lines. We know it exists, but it's impossible to duplicate on earth. Leaves of Grass is a complicated and beautiful film, one of the best of 2010.
Leaves of Grass: ★★★★