The movie tells the story of Mickey, a butcher in God's Pocket. He's married to Jeanie, Leon's mother. They are the typical God's Pocket inhabitants, debt choked worker class who visits bars at nights. One day, the racist Leon gets killed on his construction job. Mickey then tries to earn more money to pay for the funeral, more load to his debt pressed finances. He tries gambling, ending up losing more money. On the other side of town Richard, a troubled newspaper writer, gets to write about Leon's death. He meets the lonely Jeanie, who feels that Leon's death has more to tell than what's on the news. Knowing Mickey has no money, Jack, the funeral home owner, rejects Leon's body, so Mickey stores it on the refrigerated meat truck.
He tries to sell the truck with the body in it, but an accident happens and the police confiscate it and put the body in the morgue, nearly missing Mickey. Richard gets close to Jeanie and they have sex. Mickey then gets the money and pays for the funeral but he hears the people talk about Jeanie and Richard. The next morning Mickey tells everything that happens after Jeanie reads the news about Leon's body. The news was by Richard, and besides Leon he writes about the typical God's Pocket people. But the people are offended by the description so Richard gets beaten up when he visits the local bar the night before the funeral.
The movie is another of those movies with the slowed down overall mood, despite it's quite a fast pace of story flow and the occasional intensity increase and decrease. The story's premise is a mix of trying to mix the reality of worker class people, the occasional tensions brushing with the law, and the issues in a community such as friendship, backing up one another, and also racism.
What I really like is the character building in this movie. They are so deeply done, despite the gloomy feel of the movie. We can see most characters' dominant daily activities, the crowd they interact with and their general views about issues in life. These gives the viewers enough to make a certain mental judgment of how the characters will respond to situations. This in turn arouses the viewers' curiosity of whether the characters behave as their guess or not.
The acting overall is also a great job. This is what truly helps the character building greatly. Philip Seymour Hofman did a great lead in this movie, maintaining the overall calm composure. Christina Hendricks did great in portraying the lonely and later grieving wife unsatisfied with the explanation on her son's death. Richard Jenkins also did nicely in portraying the newsman with the empty life. Even Caleb Landry Jones plays his character well enough to set in motion the side conflict that Mickey has later on.
The photography is really supporting to the overall mood. With the coloration toned a bit darker, the scenes shot mostly indoors with the contrasting sunlight at day times, The whole mood of gloomy and boring life of a worker class creeps in significant over the entire movie. This on the other hand can also make the movie feels not entertaining due to boredom it can cast at impatient viewers.
So my opinion is that this movie is really intriguing, especially on the way it plays with the expectations of the viewers. As soon as you think this movie gets bring, it comes up with a scene that tickles your curiosity even more. A 6 out of 10 score from me is an appropriate voice to represent the general consensus. A recommendation? Only for real film lovers or those with the great amount of patience.
He tries to sell the truck with the body in it, but an accident happens and the police confiscate it and put the body in the morgue, nearly missing Mickey. Richard gets close to Jeanie and they have sex. Mickey then gets the money and pays for the funeral but he hears the people talk about Jeanie and Richard. The next morning Mickey tells everything that happens after Jeanie reads the news about Leon's body. The news was by Richard, and besides Leon he writes about the typical God's Pocket people. But the people are offended by the description so Richard gets beaten up when he visits the local bar the night before the funeral.
The movie is another of those movies with the slowed down overall mood, despite it's quite a fast pace of story flow and the occasional intensity increase and decrease. The story's premise is a mix of trying to mix the reality of worker class people, the occasional tensions brushing with the law, and the issues in a community such as friendship, backing up one another, and also racism.
What I really like is the character building in this movie. They are so deeply done, despite the gloomy feel of the movie. We can see most characters' dominant daily activities, the crowd they interact with and their general views about issues in life. These gives the viewers enough to make a certain mental judgment of how the characters will respond to situations. This in turn arouses the viewers' curiosity of whether the characters behave as their guess or not.
The acting overall is also a great job. This is what truly helps the character building greatly. Philip Seymour Hofman did a great lead in this movie, maintaining the overall calm composure. Christina Hendricks did great in portraying the lonely and later grieving wife unsatisfied with the explanation on her son's death. Richard Jenkins also did nicely in portraying the newsman with the empty life. Even Caleb Landry Jones plays his character well enough to set in motion the side conflict that Mickey has later on.
The photography is really supporting to the overall mood. With the coloration toned a bit darker, the scenes shot mostly indoors with the contrasting sunlight at day times, The whole mood of gloomy and boring life of a worker class creeps in significant over the entire movie. This on the other hand can also make the movie feels not entertaining due to boredom it can cast at impatient viewers.
So my opinion is that this movie is really intriguing, especially on the way it plays with the expectations of the viewers. As soon as you think this movie gets bring, it comes up with a scene that tickles your curiosity even more. A 6 out of 10 score from me is an appropriate voice to represent the general consensus. A recommendation? Only for real film lovers or those with the great amount of patience.