Best movie of this year hands down!

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

I love Duvall, and enjoy most things with BBT, but this one let me down. Many unexplained character back stories, none of the adults were happily married, and aside from that, it appeared that no one had a job, yet they could afford to live in this beautiful antebellum mansion with a maid, numerous cars and a swimming pool. Also, the characters' ages seemed off for the time period, i.e. the movie took place in 1969, and the 3 sons were all veterans of WW2 25 years earlier - they didn't look old enough, especially Bacon. I was disappointed in this movie, was hoping for something as good as Slingblade. I would have turned it off but I just kept thinking there would be some redeeming plot twist or character development, but nothing ever came.

It has absolutely nothing to do with Jayne and the car she was killed in is mentioned only because Robert Duvall's character {Jim Caldwell} is the retired patriarch of a wealthy Alabama family, who spends his spare time listening to police scanners and then going out to visit crash sites. He was a medic in WW1 and must be fascinated with grisly physical injuries. It's never mentioned how the Caldwell family made their money but they have enough that 2 of his sons, Skip {Thornton} & Carroll {Bacon}, live at home and don't have to work. They were each combat veterans in WW2 and now, almost 25 years after the war they seem to spend most of their time drinking beer and smoking dope. They have another brother, Jimbo, who was also a WW2 veteran who didn't see combat but is the responsible brother, who nevertheless is envious that he didn't get to fight as his brothers did. They also have a hot looking sister, Donna {Katherine LaNasa} who had been Miss Alabama years ago and is now married to Neal Baron, a former NFL player who now owns several car dealerships in Atlanta and drinks prodigious amount of beer. The Caldwell family learns that that Jim's estranged wife and their mother Naomi has passed away in England. Her husband of nearly 20 years, Kingsley Bedford {Hurt} and his 2 grown children from a previous marriage, Philip and Camilla and accompanying him to bury Naomi. And that's about it, as far as the plot. The 2 families mingle socially and romantically, as Skip and Camilla discover they both enjoy kinkiness and Donna has a tryst with Philip. Jim reconciles with Kingsley as he takes him to an auto museum to see Jayne's wrecked car. There are some subplots briefly explored. Bacon is about a 50 year old hippie who is leading demonstrations against the Vietnam war to the chagrin of the family. He wants his son to go to college to avoid getting drafted. One of Jim's grandkids is doing acid and spikes his ice tea. The three Caldwell brothers end up bonding together at the end with a joint and beer and jump into one of Skip's muscle cars to ride off into the sunset. Thankfully director and co-writer Thornton didn't have the finish by ending up in a gruesome accident that would bring the father out to visit.It's an uneven movie, but still has some pretty good acting, a few laughs. Not sure how many more movies Robert Duvall may have left in the tank, but this is the type of role he nails. Nice time period piece. The Caldwell's enjoy their Falstaff, a popular beer of the time, gone now for many years.

So good to see Billy Bob Thornton back in the director's chair. I don't think anyone has as pinpoint an accuracy to the south of the United States as Thornton does in the modern idiom of film. The ensemble cast is amazing and authentically played by all. Loved the truth of characters with inseparable bond; so much organic glue like the humidity of the time and setting.Each character is fully formed, carrying with them a wealth of circumstances that we understand almost from the first introduction, furthermore, develops to full intricate discovery. I loved the juxtaposition expressed between the despairing union of opposing cultures.How wonderful the interplay between John Hurt and Duvall, the likeness of familial hierarchy they wear so naturally.

Terrible script, awful directing, excruciatingly sloooowwww and has nothing to offer but pain, misery, awkwardness, suffering and stupidity.The editor should be banned from the business and Billy Bob... please, stop... just stop. Stick to acting.I call this an actors movie because it's all about actors trying to impress other actors. They obviously didn't make it for entertainment value. It wasn't made for the movie-going public. Its sole purpose is to be an Oscar vehicle for B.B. Thornton.Sorry Billy Bob.... I'm not a voting member of the Academy. If I were, I would have to give you a thumbs down for blatant pandering to your professional colleagues while ignoring the ticket-buying public.