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The
United States of Leland
Stars: Don Cheadle, Ryan Gosling, Chris Klein, Jena Malone, Michelle Williams, Lena Olin, Martin Donovan, Ann Magnuson and Kevin Spacey Director/Scriptwriter: Matthew Ryan Hoge Music: Jeremy Enigk Paramount Classics Running Time: 105 minutes Rating: R Matthew Ryan Hoge presents a film of several lives gone awry. Even the 105 minutes I spent watching this film felt awry. There is only one sympathetic character in the movie and he is murdered. In the story, people have hidden agendas and go through life behind facades. There is a famous writer with sarcastic wit sharp enough to slice salami; a girl who wants to break up with her boyfriend, but mopes around the house not knowing what to do about the situation; a teacher in a juvenile detention hall who plods through the day and two-times his traveling girlfriend at night; and at the center of the film is Leland who has as much emotion as a rock. The story begins with the murder of a mentally challenged boy by teenager Leland (Ryan Gosling) who was dating the boy’s sister, Becky (Jena Malone). Leland has played God and taken a life. The parents of the murdered boy (Martin Donovan and Ann Magnuson) have their hands full as Becky is in and out of drug rehab. Becky’s older sister, Julie (Michelle Williams), will be going to college, but wants to break up with her boyfriend, Allen (Chris Klein), who happens to live with the family. Leland’s father, Albert (Kevin Spacey), is a world-famous novelist who doesn’t care for anything but his next book. While Leland is in detention awaiting trial, he meets Pearl (Don Cheadle), a teacher who spots Leland as a smart kid and also the potential subject for a book, as Pearl is a writer. The story is told through some flashbacks that are handled roughly and the sharp cutaways give you the feeling of an amateur production. Except for Don Cheadle and Chris Klein, the rest of the cast plowed through this film as though they were reading from the script. Cheadle gives life to the role of a man who breaks rules for his own purpose and then is called up short to examine what he has done. Klein is the live-in boyfriend who owes everything to someone else’s family and has to work hard to keep the family together by being their personal enforcer. Not enough is shown of these families’ lives to understand what happened to arrive at this point. Parents have a mentally challenged child; so how difficult has it been through the years? One girl is into drugs. Why? Another father is always away from his child and even chooses to live in Europe for years, apparently to avoid contact. Why? A family takes in a boy and treats him almost as a son. Why? I would have titled this film Why? because The United States of Leland implies a union of states or a cohesive whole that isn’t present here. Ryan Gosling, who has previously shone in Remember the Titans and Murder By Numbers as Leland sleepwalks through a role that should have had great depth. The emotionally frozen person is presented to us as wise beyond his years, a sage behind bars, is hampered by psychobabble dialogue that confuses rather than enlightens. Characters are presented with hints about their life and then we are left dangling. It is as though the script for The United States of Leland needed another red pencil session before filming. It feels like an unfinished product. Copyright 2004 Marie Asner Submitted 3/30/04
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