Fresh and Exciting

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The acting in this movie is really good.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Haters gonna hate, too many negative reviews here about the acting. I found it an interesting story about a cowboy family, Dad is a hardnose conservative and needs to find redemption. The scenery, horse riding and static camera shots were well composed, the rest kind of by the book. Bit of Mexican American relations thrown in. Texas Ranger cop was taciturn and serious but that's the Chuck Norris way isn't it? I did find Duvall kind of played it a little to similar to the Judge he played with Downey but he's always a treat to watch on screen.

Robert Duvall directs this story of a rancher coming to grips with story of his life, and the debts he owes to his family and the people he has wronged. It comes with a cast of incredibly well-known and unknown actors. The cohesion of this ensemble's performance is one of the best examples of well-balanced acting that I have seen in a long time. Every brief conversation and every scene had a treasure of detail and story, and each player does their part beautifully. After looking around online I became more than a little tired of the shallow and ludicrously hostile reviews that seem to follow this film across the internet. Thankfully, deeply stupid reviews cannot diminish the quality of this film because those reviews have no legitimate basis for their criticism. No performance that tries to deal so honestly with its audience gets away with it. There are just too many people looking for that saturated over-the-rainbow technicolor dream. This film unfolds in such a deceptively raw style that many people seem to have failed to grasp what a focused and skilled a piece of storytelling is right in front of them. There's quite a bit in this film that makes people uncomfortable. There are serious issues- about the border, about lies, about loss, about discrimination, and the heaven and hell of family ties. And the actors just come right at it all. Not one character is reduced to a silent chew spitting silhouette of cowboy or cowgirl. I believe that the more you tell the truth to yourself and others, the more you will able to see when people are being honest with you. I liked this film, and I am glad it was made. And I thank everyone involved in making it.

I'm glad that I scrolled down far enough to read Tony Heck's review. Was expecting something laughable, judging by the majority of comments but I knew that wouldn't be the case with a legend in the driving seat. Many harsh comments about his wife's acting. She was very natural/believable. I really enjoyed this film. A very decent story about a proud man of his time finally coming to terms with himself. And doing the 'right thing' (albeit at the end. I hope that that Mr. Duvall can churn out a few more films like this. He's in great shape for a man of his age and I doubt that he'd require any mounting aide in real life. Lovely touch with the cell phone in the opening scene and some wonderful shots of Texas. Must put it on my bucket list of places to see. Slainte

Very disappointing considering the cast involved. Much has been made of the gay theme but this rarely rises to the level of an after school special. Robert Duvall takes credit for the screenplay but I don't know which is worse his writing his direction or his acting which seems phoned in. One character - the woman Texas Ranger wanders in from another movie & I never quite figured out what she was doing there. She didn't seem to know either. There are a lot of Hispanic background actors who take up space as well. Sadly they have very bad accents even when speaking Spanish. I kept waiting for something good to happen some music, some photography maybe some full frontal male nudity with James Franco or Josh Hartnett.