Director Nikolaj Arcel carries off this man versus nature story with a deft hand. His choices (like the celebratory montage of potatoes growing on the heath) are smart, and his use of Bennebjerg as a gleefully malicious villain adds punch to the film.
Matt Damon delivers another impressive performance as an oil executive attempting to fast-talk the locals into selling their land for drilling. The Promised Land is a smart, character driven drama that drills into the complex fossil fuel debate without becoming a one-sided message movie.
Matt Damon
A prickly farmer resists the greed of a big energy conglomerate in this well-acted, engrossing drama. Matt Damon and Frances McDormand deliver powerful performances in this provocative film adapted from the Dave Eggers novel. Director Gus Van Sant, who teamed with Damon on Good Will Hunting 15 years ago, has made an absorbing and intelligent film that raises more questions than it can answer.
The Promised Land starts with the ominous proverb, “The heath cannot be tamed.” That line might read like a foregone conclusion, but once Mads Mikkelsen appears on screen, it becomes clear that the Dane understands grim better than most anybody. This 2023 Venice competition entry, a lavishly upholstered historical(ish) drama that echoes both David Lean’s Sixties epics and Mel Gibson’s big fence-swinging hysterics, ultimately owes its residual gravitas to Mikkelson’s expressive woodcut visage.
Despite the cliched beats in this story of a small town’s resistance to a fracking company, this film is refreshingly direct and honest. It avoids ennobling cliches that turn characters into ideals and movies into exercises in spurious nostalgia, while also revealing the way money corrupts human nature. The supporting cast of townspeople is mostly flat and unremarkable, but Mikkelsen carries the film with his steadfast conviction and the ability to make even the most despicable characters relatable. Bennebjerg, as the gleefully malignant villain Schinkel, is another standout.
John Krasinski
Matt Damon, who co-wrote and starred in this film, reunites with director Gus Van Sant for the first time since Good Will Hunting. He and co-star John Krasinski are both excellent, evoking a sense of small-town America that feels both familiar and alien. The movie also has an excellent supporting cast including Frances McDormand and Rosemarie DeWitt.
The story revolves around a town that is being invaded by the fracking industry, which threatens their way of life. The people of the town are fighting back and trying to save their land from the gas companies. This is an excellent political drama that takes a close look at how big businesses are taking advantage of the people in small towns.
While the thriller movie does not take a clear position on the issue of fracking, it does offer an excellent performance by John Krasinski and some interesting characters. The film does not feel like a documentary and has a good script.
Matt Damon is excellent as a business man for a large natural gas conglomerate that tries to buy the rights of farmers in a small town. He would be the bad guy in most movies, but he seems very human and understandable in this role. His character starts to lose focus when he meets Alice, the local school teacher (Rosemarie DeWitt) who is trying to keep her community from signing the leases.
Frances McDormand
A soft-centred drama that takes on an important issue, Promised Land benefits from sure direction and fine performances. Matt Damon is Steve Butler, a smooth-talking salesman hired by an energy company to convince residents of a small midwestern town to sell their land for drilling. He tries to convince them that fracking will bring them wealth, but the locals are aware of the dangers that could come with it.
Frances McDormand is a calming force in the film. She radiates warmth and trustworthiness in her role as the town’s sheriff. She knows that the locals have poured their hearts into their work, and they can’t simply abandon it all for money. They also know that their environment is being destroyed by industrial agriculture, and they’re willing to stand up for what they believe in.
Gus Van Sant’s gentle but knowing natural gas drama is concerned with the tension between long-term environmental costs and short-term financial gain. It may ultimately cave in to sentimentality and stereotype, but its alert performances and muted rhythms make for a compelling watch. Featuring solid performances from Damon, McDormand and Krasinski, along with Hal Holbrook, Rosemarie DeWitt, Scoot McNairy, Titus Welliver, and Lucas Black, Promised Land is an engaging, thought-provoking drama.
Rosemarie DeWitt
Rosemarie DeWitt, best known as Don Draper’s ex-mistress on Mad Men and the titular character in Jonathan Demme’s Oscar-nominated Rachel Getting Married, continues her impressive run with this powerful and moving drama. She co-stars with Matt Damon and Frances McDormand in Promised Land, a drama that takes aim at big business taking advantage of small towns by selling them drilling rights to their land.
Matt Damon plays Steve Butler, a natural-gas company rep who encounters resistance in an impoverished rural town when trying to sell drilling rights to farmland. Despite a slick hippy environmentalist (John Krasinski) attempting to turn public opinion, the residents of this tiny hamlet refuse to sell their land and livelihood.
Gus Van Sant directs with attention to the performances and a real feeling for rural life, especially the quaint downtown area with its one bar, store and gas station. But he overreaches a bit when it comes to the issue at hand, veering into melodrama and losing his grip on the fact that fracking is not in the best interest of everyone involved.
It’s an admirable movie that wears its politics on its sleeve but also raises more questions than it can reasonably address. For instance, there’s a forced romance between Sue and the sarcastic convenience-store owner that doesn’t work and a rushed ending that doesn’t quite stick.
