I love this movie so much

You won't be disappointed!

A lot of fun.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

sadly this film is a diamond lost in a coal mine. No one I know has heard about it. But it is SOOOO AMAZING THAT after 2 minutes of it airing at 3am (despite the fact I have to sleep and work in a couple hours!!!)I could not stop watching. By far David Morse GREATEST performance ever as well as quite possibly one of Ryan Goslings best as well. Both leave any actor watching, with the utmost inspiration for developing ones own craft. Definitely performances to aspire to in any actors career. If this film is a testament to the Smith Brothers ability to direct actors, it certainly leaves no reservations in my mind! Hopefully one day I will be fortunate enough to work with such talents.

This movie's tone captures the atmosphere that fuels the main characters' angst and ennui. There are characters that seem purposely written vague as a story devise. Things revealed about them make this devise effective. One teen's survival seems to be the salvation for so many. But the main character is not a Christ figure. Gosling has played this type of character before -- Trapped between doing the right thing and rebelling against himself ("The Believer"). A gripping character study. David Morse continues to demonstrate his versatility. And the cinematography paints the bleak surroundings that inform the consciousness of Gosling's character. Clea Duvall gives good misunderstood-tortured-soul, and the secondary characters were all appropriately shallow and callous. There was no effort to break ground with this film. But the filmmakers did manage to capture ordinary moments, pause over them and offer some insights. No one will mistake this for the Coen brothers, but they, too, started with basic ideas and developed a unique style of film-making that was shaped by their early experiences and the story arc of their own maturation. Small films like this are a luxury for young actors, most of who are pushed to become silver screen icons as a heartthrobs, action muscle or totally irreverent rakes. Gosling -- for one -- is getting an opportunity to hone his skills as a character actor and cane likely find work no matter what the genre. Morese also will not hurt for work and Duvall has shown that she rises above the roles she's asked to play. I think there is more good work to come for all of them. There is should be more good work from these filmmakers as well. How they handle more complex material will be the next thing to watch for.

Despite the novelty of its setting, 'The Slaughter Rule' is a fairly conventional coming-of-age tale about a boy who grows into manhood by becoming a member of a ragtag six-man football team. Roy is a teenager trapped in a small Montana town whose life has not been going any too well of late. His father, with whom he had only the most casual of relationships, has been discovered dead on a railroad track, a possible suicide victim. His mother, embittered by their divorce, sleeps around with countless men and has no real inclination to provide her son with any but the most cursory form of maternal affection. On top of all this, Roy has just been rejected for the school's varsity football team because the coach finds him lacking in the kind of 'anger' he feels a player needs to be a success on the gridiron. When Roy is asked by Gid, a somewhat eccentric older man in the town, to come join his six-man football team, the youth only reluctantly acquiesces (six-man football is a near rule-less poor relation to the real game, one ostensibly only played by farm boys). It is at this point that Roy's growth into manhood begins, since it turns out that the enigmatic Gid, who one assumes will be merely a father figure for the affection-starved youth, may be seeking more than just a father/son, athlete/coach relationship with the boy.This latent-homosexual subtext, in fact, is just about the only element that separates 'The Slaughter Rule' from countless other films in this genre. Most everything else about the film feels derivative and stale: the emotionally distant parents, the promiscuous, psychologically detached mother, the abusive stepdad, the sweet girl who wants to flee this hicksville town as fast and as far as a bus ticket can take her. Towards the end, especially, the filmmakers start to pile up the heartbreaks and tragedies, one on top of the other, almost to epic proportions. One wonders how so much can happen in so short a time to so small a group of people. In the almost two hour running time of the film, only the ambiguity of the Roy/Gid relationship arouses any real interest in the viewer.Ryan Gosling is tremendously appealing as the troubled Roy, and David Morse (the father in 'Contact') turns Gid into a nicely sympathetic figure. The starkness of the Montana landscape also provides an appropriate backdrop for the bleak melodrama that is playing itself out in the foreground. Apart from these few quality elements, however, there isn't a whole lot else to commend in 'The Slaughter Rule.'

I really enjoyed this film in every way, I am a city boy and this heartland story really was wonderful even for a city kid like myself. The acting is excellent to say the least, it's moving, and gets your blood flowing, it's simply real. First time I've ever seen Ryan Gosling's work and he was fantastic, wow this kid is like 22 years old and what a performance. Everyone is great in this one, David Morse is fantastic as well. David Cale another strong acting job here, Clea DuVall is amazingly graceful and poetic in her role... I wish I could see these actors more and more and in parts as strong as in this film. I can't say more, thanks for a wonderful film.