American Pastoral (2016)

This review is going to be short! This film is OK, there is not really much to it, its nothing bad but it doesn't have anything amazing.

The performances across the board are fine, Ewan McGregor, Jennifer Connelly and Dakota Fanning are all decent. There is good chemistry between all of them, whether it be tension between Connelly and Fanning or love between McGregor and Fanning. It think this film was crying out for one of them just to stand out but it never happened which is a shame, they were all just there. There is nothing wrong with the performances they are just all alright, no standouts.

Next the directing is good from first time director Ewan McGregor, its a solid start to his career in directing. Its a industry standard sought of film with no ground breaking shots/camera work or cinematography, but it is a solid first attempt. I would personally be interested in whatever McGregor decides to director next, because this film seemed a safe option.

Negatives, very slowly paced. The film is extremely slow, which made believe that there was going to be some big twist which never came. I think to have a change of pace they could should more the bombings in the film, instead of the characters talking about them but that was probably due to the budget of the film.

The story is just a bit boring and quite thin, there is a only about 1 to 2 layers to this film. They could made this film much more complex and interesting by incorporating multiple story elements that they hint at, like the Vietnam war. Instead they just relied on the story between the characters which was not riveting in any way and was quite dull, such a shame.

All in all this film had some much potential which it never really meets, it has decent performances but the story and the pacing of this film really let it down, 50% out of 100 Im personally on the fence about this film its positives and negative balance out just. Its just OK!