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Well now, let me tell ya ’bout this movie, “A Violent Separation.” Don’t go expectin’ no fancy stuff, ya hear? It’s a story ’bout some folks in a small town, Montana I think it was.
So, there’s this young fella, Norman, a deputy sheriff, see? He’s got a brother, Ray, and Ray, well, he’s a bit of a troublemaker. Ray goes and does somethin’ real bad, kills somebody. And Norman, bless his heart, tries to cover it up. Family, right? Sometimes they get ya into a heap of trouble.
- Now, here’s where it gets messy.
- The gal who got killed? She had a sister, Frances.
- And wouldn’t ya know it, Norman falls head over heels for Frances. Can ya imagine?
Lordy, it’s like somethin’ out of them soap operas my granddaughter watches. This Norman, he’s stuck between a rock and a hard place. He loves his brother, but he also loves this gal whose sister his brother killed. Talk about a pickle!
The movie, it kinda drags on a bit, ya know? They spend a lot of time showin’ these folks mopin’ around, feelin’ sorry for themselves. And honestly, I didn’t much care for any of ’em. They all seemed kinda selfish and dumb, if ya ask me. It’s hard to feel bad for someone when they keep makin’ bad choices, ain’t it?
There’s this rain, always rainin’ in the movie. Makes everything feel gloomy and sad. And the town, it’s small, like one of them places where everybody knows everybody’s business. That can be good and bad, ya know? Good when ya need help, bad when ya done somethin’ wrong.
The actors, they did alright, I guess. There’s that girl, Alycia somethin’-or-other, she plays Frances. She’s pretty, but she don’t smile much in this movie. And Norman, he’s played by this Brenton fella. He looks worried all the time, which I guess makes sense considerin’ the mess he’s in.
The folks who made the movie, Kevin and Michael Goetz, they tried to make it all dramatic and suspenseful, but it just didn’t quite work for me. It felt kinda slow and predictable. I kept thinkin’, “Just tell the truth, already!” But no, they gotta drag it out, make it all complicated.
You know, life’s complicated enough without movies makin’ it worse. Sometimes ya just want a good story, somethin’ that makes ya laugh or cry or at least keeps ya entertained. This one, it just made me feel kinda tired.
Now, I ain’t sayin’ it’s a terrible movie. It’s just not very good. It’s got some pretty scenery, what with all that Montana countryside. And the actors, they try their best. But the story, it just ain’t strong enough to hold it all together. It’s like a loose quilt, all the pieces are there, but it just don’t keep you warm.
So, if you’re lookin’ for somethin’ to watch on a rainy afternoon and you ain’t got nothin’ better to do, maybe give it a try. But don’t say I didn’t warn ya. It’s kinda slow, kinda sad, and kinda… well, kinda not very good. If you need something to do while you’re folding laundry, it might be okay. But if you’re lookin’ for some excitement, best look elsewhere.
They talk about “moral dilemmas” and all that fancy stuff, but it just boils down to a fella makin’ a bad choice and then makin’ another bad choice to cover up the first one. Seems to me, life’s simpler than that. Do what’s right, even when it’s hard. That’s what my Ma always told me. And those brothers? They shoulda listened to their Ma, if they had one.
And that Frances gal, she’s caught in the middle. Poor thing. But even she ain’t blameless, ya know? She’s got secrets of her own. Everybody in this movie’s got secrets, and them secrets just keep pilin’ up until everything comes crashin’ down. It’s like a barn full of hay, just waitin’ for a match.
In the end, ain’t nobody happy. And that’s about all I got to say about that. If you want a happy movie, this ain’t it. If you want a movie that makes ya think about family and loyalty and doin’ the right thing, well, maybe it’ll do that. But it’ll do it real slow and real gloomy-like.
Tags: [A Violent Separation, movie review, crime drama, Montana, family drama, Brenton Thwaites, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Kevin Goetz, Michael Goetz]
