Genre: Drama
Director: Clint Eastwood
Writer: Chad Taylor
Based on the play by Sam Shepard
Cast: Clint Eastwood, Jessica Lange, Casey Affleck, Brendan Fraser, Ansel Elgort, Haley Lu Richardson, Bill Pullman
Plot: In 1977, Vince (Ansel Elgort), who looks like a James Dean wannabe, drives down the open road with his girlfriend Shelly (Haley Lu Richardson). She asks if he is sure that he wants to do this and he says yes. He then springs a surprise on her and says they are making a detour before they get to his father’s house in New Mexico.
Dodge (Clint Eastwood) and Halie (Jessica Lange) live a quiet life on their farm with their oldest son Tilden (Brendan Fraser). Tilden is a little mentally slow, although it is unclear if this was by birth or some sort of accident. Halie tells Dodge that their youngest son Bradley will be by to cut his hair. As Halie leaves to go to church, we never see Dodge leave his recliner as he is able to keep grab his whiskey bottles from under the chair (which he is hiding from Halie).
Tilden enters the home with some corn he gathered from outside, although Dodge tells him nothing has grown out there in decades. As Tilden husks the corn, Dodge laments his son’s directionless life and asks him why he couldn’t have been more like his ambitious little brother Ansel. Tilden tells Dodge that least he is still alive while that Ansel died 20 years ago. Dodge scolds Tilden for getting into trouble in New Mexico and having to come back here. A very drunk Dodge falls asleep mid-conversation and Tilden covers him with the cornhusks like a blanket. Bradley (Casey Affleck) enters the home looking disheveled and gives Tilden an emotionless nod. He is a one-legged amputee after an accident with a chainsaw. He cuts Dodge’s hair as he sleeps.
After church, Halie talks with Father Dewis (Bill Pullman) about losing her son Ansel. Ansel was killed by his newlywed Catholic wife on their honeymoon by a shotgun. Father Dewis says the church can help in erecting a plaque in Ansel’s honor, which makes Halie happy. He puts his hand on her lap as he tells her this and she smiles and reciprocates the favor.
Vince and Shelley arrive at the farmhouse but hesitate before they walk in. Vince warns her that his family might be a little weird and she says she doesn’t mind. When they walk in, Dodge is the only one in the room. When Vince goes to the bathroom, Shelly accidentally wakes Dodge up and he stares at her with a menace before checking out her body. She yells for Vince to come and he does but Dodge doesn’t know who Vince is. Vince tells him that he is Tilden’s son which confuses Dodge even more. He says Tilden must have had two sons.
He belittles Shelly for being from California. Vince tells his grandpa to stop being mean to her but Dodge says don’t call him grandpa. Shelly thinks they have entered the wrong house and wants to leave but Vince is aggressively adamant that they stay. Tilden walks in to Vince’s surprise, having thought he was in New Mexico. However, just as with Dodge, Tilden doesn’t recognize Vince. Shelly, confused and angered, demands that Tilden say something to his son. Tilden says he had a son once but “we buried him”. Vince asks where Halie is and Dodge says she is at church with her “boyfriend”. Still no one recognizing him, Vince starts to grow angry and asks what is going on. He brings up some old memories from his childhood hoping it will elicit some type of memory but Tilden remains stoic while Dodge compliments Shelly.
Dodge tells Vince to go to the liquor store and get him some more whiskey. With little hope at this point, Vince figures this might finally be what makes Dodge and Tilden remember him. Shelly says she doesn’t want to be left here alone but Vince insists that this is his family and she will be safe here. When Vince leaves, Shelly tries to find out more about Vince but Tilden says he doesn’t recognize him. Tilden starts to ask her more about Vince but starts becoming creepy and asking to touch her fur coat. Dodge tells him to knock it off. Tilden asks if he can wear the coat and she lets him.
Huddled up in the coat, Tilden starts to cradle back and forth as he recounts the days when he used to have a car and do forbidden things. Shelly asks why he doesn’t drive now and he says because he is older. She says that just because he is an adult doesn’t mean he can’t adventure. Tilden begins pacing and says if he told her why he can’t then she wouldn’t let him wear the coat anymore. She insists it is ok. Tilden starts to emotionally tell her he once had a little baby that was so small you could carry it in one hand. So small that it could drown or disappear and no one would notice. No service or nothing. Dodge grows more aggravated towards Tilden. Tilden says the baby is like a hidden treasure of sorts and Dodge is the only one who knows where it is. The storm intensifies outside.
Bradley enters the home drunk and asks who Shelly is. He then turns his attention to belittling Tilden, who he calls a former All-American in reference to his brother’s past glory days as a football player. His aggressiveness scares Tilden off, who wanders off outside. Bradley vents about his lame family to Shelly, who is put off by his attitude (as opposed to Tilden’s gentle aloofness). He grabs the back of her head and tells her to open her mouth. He then sticks three fingers in her mouth and walks away. He picks up the fur coat that Tilden dropped and places it over a sleeping Dodge before passing out drunk himself. Shelly goes into the kitchen to make some coffee.
Vince drives recklessly down a dirt road, drinking some of the alcohol that he bought at the liquor store. Shelly re-enters the room and is frustrated at Vince’s absence. Dodge awakens and tells her he probably ran away. She says tells him about Bradley’s attitude last night but Dodge says she doesn’t have to worry about him because he only has one leg. Halie arrives back at the home with a bouquet of roses and Father Dewis by her side. She is shocked to find all the people at her house but practically ignores Shelly’s presence. She tells Dodge that Ansel isn’t just getting a plaque but instead a big bronze statue at the church.
Halie apologizes to Father Dewis about all the chaos in her household. Shelly intervenes and says she came here with her grandson but Halie turns her back on her. Shelly raises her voice and asks if anyone knows she even exists right now. Bradley tells her stay out of their family business but she scolds him for sticking his hand in her mouth. He adamantly denies this but Shelly steals Bradley’s wooden leg and uses it to fend off the aggravated family members. Bradley tells her to get out of their lives but Shelly tells them she knows their family secret. Bradley says she doesn’t know anything but Dodge says she does which prompts Halie to panic and tells Father Dewis not to believe anything she says.
Dodge says now might as well be the time they bring it out in the open and he’ll do it himself. They were a well established family, three grown boys and a producing farm. He and Halie were in the middle of their lives and set up perfectly to ride It out. And then, despite them not sleeping in the same bed for six years, she gets pregnant. For all the other boys, he says he gave her the best doctors but this one he made her have on her own and she did. It almost killed her but the baby was born and wanted to grow up to be a part of the family just like everyone else and pretend he was its father. But everyone knew. Especially Tilden. Tilden would cradle the baby in one hand and walk around with it for hours, singing “Hush Little Baby” to it. He’d tell the kids all kind of stories. Dodge says they couldn’t allow that to grow up up right in the middle of their lives. It made everything they’d accomplished look like it was nothing, everything canceled by one mistake.
So he killed it. He drowned it like the runt of the litter, adding that there was no struggle. Life just left it. Halie, hysterical, says Ansel would’ve stopped him because he was a hero and a man. She says there are no more heroes and no more men in her family. As if on cue, the front door slings open and Vince burling in drunk out of the pouring rain. Halie recognizes Vince and tells him to come inside but he says nobody knows who he is and starts throwing beer bottles. Halie is shocked by Vince’s overt aggressiveness and says how he was such a sweet little child. Father Dewis comforts her. Dodge says that things are about over for him and he is signing over the house and his belongings to Vince. Shelly tells Vince she wants to leave but he says that this is his family and his house so he has to stay. She grabs his keys and wishes him goodbye.
The rain outside intensifies again as Father Dewis says he has to leave. Drunk Vince grabs the wooden leg and throws it out the window which prompts Bradley crawl on the floor for it. Vince notices that Dodge has stopped breathing but doesn’t say anything and places the blanket over him and a single rose.
From upstairs, Halie talks down to Dodge that the corn has actually grown out back, carrots too. Tilden was right. It’s a miracle. Vince relaxes on the couch with a cigarette. Halie says that sometimes you can’t force a thing to grow. The mechanics are all hidden and work in their own way and you have to have faith in that. Tilden emerges from outside, covered in dirt and looking tired. In his arms he cradles a shrouded set of infant bones, still in their skeletal structure. He sings “Hush Little Baby” to it as he paces around the living room and the thunder roars outside.
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