A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

And he most definitely achieved that, I found myself immersed in the story he created, Norton made both of his characters very believable, on one hand you got the lackadaisical country brother Brady and on the other you got the educated-know-it-all brother Billy, both performed expertly by a talented actor.Now I adored this film and nearly every scene was memorable, one scene I really liked even though it was depressing was when Brady approaches Feinman (Josh Pias) who panics and point blank fires a round into Brady's chest, seeing this Billy almost immediately fired a single shot into the man who inexplicably killed his brother, I have a brother myself (not a twin, an older a-hole brother) and I would have probably done the same thing if I was ever in that situation no matter how unlikely it was, in fact I think any sibling would do the same (unless said sibling was a bad person).Now as far as the films current 9/10 rating I foresee it achieving a 7.8 in the long run. Love it or hate the movie will have a cult following in the coming years.

Whilst there is nothing deep and meaningful here the plot and characters are plausible. The pace is about right as is the mix between humour and action. Thus Leaves of Grass is excellent entertainment (which is what movies are for) and a movie which I felt came close to nearly having it all(plot, comedy, acting and direction) in just the right doses: with one notable exception... the ending. Whilst often the hardest part to write in any story the ending here was neither necessary nor plausible. A prof of Classic's just wouldn't end up trying to hawk his dead brothers grow operation in order to tie up all the loose ends. So whilst it brings the film to a close, it's a bad close that lets down what up to then was pretty plausible. If it were up to me I would just cut the whole crossbow bit out and let the audience go home five minutes earlier and with a far better impression of the movie as a whole.

This was quite the engaging story about crime and the consequences of our choices in life. However, parts of it just didn't seem to click, with a few too many glaring plot holes. I picked this movie based solely on the combination of Edward Norton and Tim Blake Nelson, as I've enjoyed the movies each has previously made. The supporting cast is quite impressive, too. All in all, I enjoyed the movie but it felt like the script should have been tweaked slightly. I thought the drug-dealing brother was played for too much of a simpleton. His mush-mouthed speaking mannerisms were a little off-putting. About halfway through, I had to turn on the subtitles just to make sure I understood him.The contrast with the scholarly twin felt a little overplayed, too. It's hard to fathom such an intelligent person trying to argue philosophy with bad guys intent on killing him. In my opinion, the movie would have been more believable if the outward personas of the twin brothers had not been so radically different. (Spoiler) The orthodontist's role was a bit perplexing, too. When he starts to spiral out of control near the end, his motive was murky. Was he after money, revenge, or both? An extra line or two of dialogue sure would have helped. I like movies that make you think, but this scene (and a few others) had me asking, "Huh?"Please don't let these moderate criticisms scare you away, however. It was a good movie and quite captivating. It just felt like it could have been even better with a small dose of script doctoring.

When I finished watching a screening of Tim Blake Nelson's "Leaves of Grass" at Ebertfest this year, I wasn't immediately sure what to think about it. Here is a movie that contains philosophy, family ties, Walt Whitman, marijuana, drug deals, twin brothers and the Jewish community of Tulsa, Oklahoma. It is at once a comedy, then a melodrama, then a violent action picture and a family drama, all inside two hours. What I was reminded of, once the fog had cleared, is how many pat, ordinary films run from point A to point B without ever taking any side roads. This is a movie that tries to be many things and succeeds.The key to the film rests with a dual performance by Edward Norton as two brothers from the same geography but, in terms of lifestyle, are on two different planets. I will give away spoilers now, so if you don't want to read further, feel free to stop here. The movie opens with a lecture by college professor Bill Kincaid (Norton) who is young, intelligent, good looking (his female students swoon) and is noted for writing several books. Added to that is the potential for his own department at Harvard.Years ago, Bill left his hometown of Little Dixie, Oklahoma for a collegiate life that existed as far away from his dysfunctional family as he could get. That world comes back into his life when he gets a phone call one day that his redneck twin brother Brady has died. Immediately, Bill gets on a plane and heads south to Little Dixie, Oklahoma to arrange the funeral. He is met back home by Brady's best buddy Bolger (Tim Blake Nelson, in a very good performance). But, Bill soon finds that he's been duped. Brady is very much alive and has brought his brother back home so he can pose as his double in order to get him out of trouble with the local drug kingpin.Brady (also played by Norton) is a different from his brother in terms of lifestyle but not intellect. He is a pot dealer, so smart about his product that he has borrowed truck-loads of equipment from that drug kingpin in order to set up a sophisticated hothouse in his basement where he will develop a new kind of herb with more potency. The fact that he hasn't paid the drug lord for the equipment is one of the reasons he's in trouble, and the reason he has tricked Bill into coming home.More about the plot I will not say. This is one of those movies that seems to be treading a familiar path but throws us off by taking chances, namely an extreme shift in tone. It begins as a daffy comedy then makes a hard right turn into brutal violence. It says something of Nelson that he has worked with the Coen brothers because his film lightly resembles Fargo in its manner of mixing comedy, drama, action and violence while never making his script trite or predictable. Like Fargo, here is another movie about a clean-cut man who enters into the criminal world without understanding how brutal and violent it really is.Nelson's script is generous, but the movie's best treat is the two performances by Edward Norton. He creates Bill and Brady has two completely separate and distinct people. Bill is clean-cut, the kind of character that Norton always plays. Brady is something new from Norton, a street-smart redneck covered in tattoos with a thick Oklahoma accent. The script allows him a great degree of street smarts, he needs it to be in the business that he's in, especially in a moment when he reveals a brilliant intellectual knowledge of herbology and biology. It helps us understand that under another set of circumstances, Brady might have been a teacher just like his brother.Norton's performance, it must be said, can't be mentioned without giving credit to some amazing special effects, which not only allow Norton to appear as both characters in the same room, but often in the same place. There is a moment early in the film when Bill grabs Brady by the collar and shoves him against a wall. The effect is so seamless that I forgot until the scene was over that this was the same actor. The test is how long we can stay with the movie and forget that these are different characters played by he same actor.This is a very difficult film to describe without giving too much away. It reveals its secrets slowly but it never feels planned or forced. That seems to be a quality all through Nelson's work. He previously directed Eye of God and The Grey Zone, very different films that would seem to only be about one thing but contain multiple undercurrents. His films are always about more than they immediately seem. Leaves of Grass is about more than drugs and crime, it is about family, about trust, about deception, about survival, about loyalty and philosophy. This is one of those films that actually gets better the more you think about it.