The United States of Leland (2004)

Ryan Gosling stars in what many consider to be his breakout role, playing a modern day Holden Caufield, who has committed a heinous crime. While the story has some tremendous performances, it really lacks any substance, rehashing the events of the past week, over and over again. We know right from the beginning of the film, that Leland killed a retard boy, what we don't know is why. The focus of the film is discovering what lead this highly intelligent, son of a celebrity, to commit such an act. The film has a huge cast of celebrities, that include Don Cheadle, Kevin Spacey, Chris Klein, and Michelle Williams, all of whom are as good as you would expect. What the film has in talent, it lacks in substance, as it's really just a whole lot of Leland talking in code. The writers go out of their way to show Leland as this deep, emotionless kid, that's been trapped inside his own mind his entire life. As the film goes on, the more Leland opens up. The writers paint the portrait of this kid and show you ever aspect of his life, in the hopes that you will figure out his true motivation before it comes out. The result is a slow moving film that causes the audience to gradually lose interest as time goes on. There is no doubt the Ryan Gosling was spectacular and deserves every good thing said about his performance, but the story seems to move slowly and in circles. The writers made it much more in depth than it had to be and most audiences will be turned off by it.

We find ourselves with Ryan Gosling in one of his first roles in this pseudo intellectual movie where even the cast, though rather solid on paper, is completely under-exploited and can't even manage to save the day.The scenario is little inspired, its structure is weak and very linear and boils down to a succession of tirades and other philosophical reflections that are tiring because they're not part of interesting dynamic. At the end of the movie, you don't seem to have grasped the motivations of this teenager though Matthew Hoge based the story on that, which proves he missed the boat.And what about this photography so ugly it seems you're watching an old TV movie from the 90's even though it was released in 2003 ! No, there is really nothing to save from the disaster that is The United States of Leland.

I believe that is movie is for those 13 and older. At first I thought the movie was going to be rather dull. After the first 10 minutes or so of the film, I found myself drawn in. My mother always told me that a coin has two sides and here you get to know and understand Leland. The lines of good and bad are mixed into shades of gray. The movie is more thought provoking than entertaining. If you want to be entertained, The United States Of Leland is not for you. However, if you happen to be in the "contemplation of life" mentality, this movie may give you some comfort, sort of a Catcher In the Rye film. Not a classic, but OK. No popcorn here. I give it four thumbs up.

There are many fascinating things I've learned about life and people in this wonderful movie. Let me list some...1. To cure autism it is best to kill the person who carries it.2. When you spew fortune-cookie wisdom, some viewers consider that "deeply intelligent".3. In order to kill someone who is in jail, do the following: fake a criminal act, get arrested and then hope that you'll be sent to the same prison and then same section as your intended victim.4. Male teens who have been neglected and ignored by their fathers turn to killing autistic kids for comfort.5. Male teens who grow up in dysfunctional families are wise beyond their years - which naturally leads them to kill retarded children.6. Murderers aren't such bad people after all.7. Sheer sadism has nothing to do with people who kill retarded children.8. Good actors, such as Kevin Spacey, are often not all that bright. He produced this baloney.9. Playing cheap college-radio alternative soft pop as a background for silly, "tragic" events will cause certain viewers to cry.10. Playing cheap college-radio plinka-plonka crap is still considered "deep" enough for certain supposedly emotionally-laden scenes.11. Ryan Gosling can't act.12. Sherilyn Fenn is still being underused in films.13. Lena Olin is still being overused.14. I do not enjoy watching Fenn make out with a 15 year-old. Clearly, the director does.15. Jena Malone and Ryan Gosling should never again play a romantic couple. They have no chemistry.16. Supposedly intelligent killers of retarded children wear a dumb facial expression all the time.TUSOL is a pretentious little wanna-be intellectual exercise, but fails on nearly ever level. The movie has an absurd premise, dull characters, dialogue that is supposed to be insightful but comes off as shallow and trite, and we don't really get to care about ANY of the characters. All of them are DULL.Gosling asks: "Why do people only say that ("I'm only human") when they've done something wrong?" Is this supposed to be "deep"? I have no idea why Cheadle simply doesn't respond like this: "Because, you murdering moron, they ARE only human. Because that IS an (all-purpose) excuse of sorts. And because they won't say 'I'm only human' when asked to order a meal in a restaurant, or when asked how old they are."Another example: "You want a why, but maybe there isn't one. Maybe this is something that just happened." (Gosling) This is something either a moron or a liar would say. In reality, a murder - especially of a defenseless victim - does not occur for "no reason". Psychopathic or insane personalities commit them, yet we are to believe that Leland is neither. He is a "misunderstood genius", a "victim of a sad childhood". Yeah, right... If every kid with a troubled adolescence killed someone, soon there would be no people left on the planet.Leland's pathological pessimism merely underlines an inborn fault in his DNA code. It is not a result of his environment, but the environment merely sped up the accelerated development of that trait. However, Hollywood's liberal, environment-influence-is-all-that-matters, Marxist approach to psychology is trying to tell you something else.Leland is like the Dalai Lama, minus the old age and the phony grin: he says things that are supposed to hit a nerve in the viewer - and in the character whom he is speaking to - but these words are on closer inspection (something like a 3-second inspection) empty, holding nothing relevant, intelligent or new. Hence this movie can only appeal to people who are quite impressionable, easily carried by their easy-to-manipulate-emotions, people who would rather not think but let the director think for them hence deciding for them what is right or wrong, who is intelligent and who isn't. Frankly, I see no particular intellect in Leland, and this is made even more difficult by Gosling's one-note, apathetic "performance", which seems to very ironically imply that Leland might be autistic, too.