I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Leland P. Fitzgerald (Ryan Gosling) kills mentally retarded Ryan Pollard stabbing him 20 times. This devastates the Pollard family (Martin Donovan, Ann Magnuson), Becky (Jena Malone), Julie (Michelle Williams) and her boyfriend Allen Harris (Chris Klein). Leland had a relationship with Becky. Leland's divorced mother Marybeth (Lena Olin) is desperate and his father Albert (Kevin Spacey) is a famous writer. Charlie is Leland's lawyer. Guillermo (Michael Peña) and Bengel (Wesley Jonathan) are fellow inmates and Pearl Madison (Don Cheadle) is their teacher at the juvenile detention center. Ayesha (Kerry Washington) is the new secretary. Pearl is a writer and he decides to make Leland his next subject.The tone is off for me. I don't like the soft rock music setting the tone. The movie needs more intensity. I also don't like Gosling decision on his speaking voice sometimes. The story telling is muddled. This should zero in on Leland, Becky and Ryan. Gosling has shown himself to be a master at emotionally complicated romance and this movie should rely on that more. Pearl is an unnecessary plot device. Writers sometimes write themselves into the story. Pearl is simply in the way. Instead of flashbacks, the movie should play it straighter and without Pearl. Either that or concentrate on the aftermath affecting the families. I don't care about Pearl.

I believe that is movie is for those 13 and older. At first I thought the movie was going to be rather dull. After the first 10 minutes or so of the film, I found myself drawn in. My mother always told me that a coin has two sides and here you get to know and understand Leland. The lines of good and bad are mixed into shades of gray. The movie is more thought provoking than entertaining. If you want to be entertained, The United States Of Leland is not for you. However, if you happen to be in the "contemplation of life" mentality, this movie may give you some comfort, sort of a Catcher In the Rye film. Not a classic, but OK. No popcorn here. I give it four thumbs up.

Leland in this case is Leland P. Fitzgerald. As played with a certain beyond-his-years solemness by Ryan Gosling, Leland is a high school loner with a nondescript divorced mother (Lena Olin) and a globe-trotting absentee father (Kevin Spacey), who, as a famed novelist, seems as equally proud of being considered a bastard as he is of being considered a genius. Though from a privileged family that is somewhat less than perfect, Leland seems to be a really nice sixteen-year-old. But, as THE UNITED STATES OF LELAND eventually gets around to making clear, it seems that Leland, despite having a gentle and quiet soul, has violently and inexplicably murdered a mentally impaired teenage boy, who also happened to be the younger brother of the girl Leland had been seeing. The question -- as Leland redundantly points out -- is "why?" The answer which seems apparent as the story ultimately unfolds is that the hapless and despondent Leland sees himself in the young autistic boy and the act is a form of suicide. He assumes that Ryan feels the same emptiness, isolation and worthlessness and therefore would be better off dead, but the one Leland really wanted to see die was Leland. It doesn't take a Freud to piece this together, though the film never quite gets around to finding this conclusion as writer-director Matthew Ryan Hoge is too busy dissecting the concept to the American family and chopping the institution into jagged, disconnected little pieces.Despite a title that promises unity and a storyline that seems to be seeking honesty, understanding and forgiveness, LELAND -- as is the way of most modern drama seeking "truth" -- gives way to predictable cynicism and a frustrating lack of insight. Unity is the last thing the film seeks, instead giving us glimpses of people and families in various states of disintegration. Most specifically, the Pollards, the family of the young boy that Leland murders. The film introduces the Pollard family piecemeal, taking its time to establish that the various characters are even related at all. There is a suggestion that they are a typical upper-middle-class suburban family, but by the end the feeling is that they are little more than related strangers living in the same house. Rather that having a death in the family bring them together, it only seems to weaken their tenuous bonds further. I suppose that this is meant to parallel the lack of closeness in Leland's family, but the result only creates an emotional vacuum. The film's message, if indeed it has one, is that family is an illusion -- at least in contemporary America.But the story's chief aim is get viewers to pity poor Leland -- and thanks to Gosling's lowkey performance the character is certainly ingratiating enough. But the film tries to convince us that the real victim here is not the kid he killed, but Leland himself, that Leland is so very, very special that his facing judgement for his crime is somehow unjust. To this end, the film dishonestly downplays not just the crime, but the true victim; granting young Ryan Pollard (Michael Welch) little screen time to either be recognized as a character or to garner viewer sympathy. Perhaps the intent was to show how life has marginalized Ryan because he is autisitic (that's how Leland sees him), but in all likelihood, the filmmakers just didn't want Ryan competing with Leland for sympathy, because Leland would surely lose. But trivializing the younger boy's importance in the story backfires; by refusing to create anything more than vague parallels between the boys, the film denies the only logic that would give it any depth. THE UNITED STATES OF LELAND is a well acted and superficially well directed, but like Leland P. Fitzgerald, it is strangely unemotional, cold and empty.

i wanted to watch this film for a while and i finally did, the wait was most definitely worth it. being a fan of Ryan Gosling already i did expect to like him at least but the sadness he projected on to me was unreal. the characters were developed just enough that you could love them but not know too much and the camera was amazing being a media student i thought about the shots all the time and i was grateful i could appreciate it. however Chris Kliens acting stood out for me not knowing much about him apart from thunderball which wasn't great, i was surprised and slightly thrilled about a fantastically underrated performance. with a stellar cast and an amazing storyline if you watch no other sad film, this is one you must.