Abundant Acreage Available (2017)

Abundant Acreage Available: Directed by Angus MacLachlan. With Steve Coulter, Max Gail, Francis Guinan, Terry Kinney. After their father dies, a middle-aged brother and sister wrestle with legacy and ownership when three brothers, whose family farmed the land for generations, return after 50 years.

“u0026quot;Abundant Acreage Availableu0026quot; is the kind of movie that is content to take its own sweet time telling its story. There is no particular interest in rushing fast forward from scene to scene at light speed. Or investing any real sense of urgency at all, actually. This is filmmaking done at an expressly intentional pace of leisure and deliberation. Particularly in this u0026quot;gotta have it five minutes agou0026quot; mentality we race through with such fevered freneticism in todayu0026#39;s world.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnd it is f—–u0026#39; wonderful.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis would quite likely be a whole different review if this domestic drama were left to the devices of lesser actors. In fact, u0026quot;Abundant Acreage Availableu0026quot; would almost assuredly have been an excruciating exercise in relentless tedium if that were the unfortunate case. Gratefully, and emphatically, it certainly is not.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAmy Ryan, Max Gail, Steve Coulter, Terry Kinney and Francis Guinan are uniformly exquisite in bringing their respective remarkable characters to life. In so doing they give us genuine multi-dimensional human beings who resonate with understated yet resoundingly affecting fragility of both body and soul.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWriter, Director and Co-Producer Angus MacLachlan has crafted a beautiful chronicle of family, love and loss (with a big boost from Directorial legend Martin Scorsese, who Exec Produces here). MacLachlanu0026#39;s choice to use a generations-old North Carolina tobacco farm as the sole setting for u0026quot;Abundant Acreage Availableu0026quot; brilliantly serves to softly amplify the pervading themes of isolation, loneliness and quiet desperation which so movingly saturate every single scene.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnd, hey. Listen up all you mysterious voters of the confoundingly clandestine Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Amy Ryan gets nominated for u0026quot;Best Actressu0026quot;. Okay? And Max Gail is up for a u0026quot;Best Supporting Actoru0026quot; Oscar. Got it? Alas, one can only hope. Each of these vaunted veterans have richly earned such lofty reward. Regrettably, it is unlikely that either Ryan or Gail will be officially recognized for their stunningly authentic performances. And while that is truly sad and indefensible, it certainly does not diminish the peerless quality of their work.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnd finally, if you will be so kind as to indulge, I simply can NOT sign off until I get this out of my system.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAmy Ryan has the smile of a goddess.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eLamentably it was not on display near enough in this production, as her personification of Tracy is inherently solemn and stoic in nature. Still, when those precious few frames were delightfully illuminated by Ms. Ryanu0026#39;s devastatingly delicious grin, it was the stuff of pure magic, that from which springs enchantment in……well……what else? Abundance.”