Director: Tim Blake Nelson
Edward Norton's career is just about impossible to figure out. In the late 90s, he was the kind of actor who turned everything he touched to gold. In a 4 year stretch, he was in Rounders, Fight Club, American History X, Death to Smoochy, and 25th Hour. I don't think all of these are great films, necessarily, but they're all stuff worth seeing (Okay, Death to Smoochy's on the borderline). Perhaps we had found our generation's DeNiro or Pacino, the guy who picks the good stuff, the guy who you've got to see in everything. And then - nothing. He stopped being in interesting movies. I saw him in The Illusionist, which was okay, but an eminently forgettable film. Then this movie.
Leaves of Grass is a mess. It's a glorious mess - featuring references to Whitman (duh), obscure Latin cases, hydroponics, and orthodonture - but a mess nonetheless. It's extremely hard to not label this film as 'minor Coen' - it's very reminiscent of something like Raising Arizona. The problem is that the film is in a middle ground - it should either embrace caricature, as the Coens tend to, or reject it entirely.
Norton is excellent as both leads, even as distracting as having one actor playing two roles can be. Still, one wishes he could give that performance in a better film.
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