Sweet Land - A Love Story
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Actor: Elizabeth Reaser, Lois Smith, Patrick Heusinger, Stephen Pelinski, Tim GuineeBrand: REASER,ELIZABETH
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; German (Original Language); Norwegian (Original Language)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 110 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-07-10
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
DVD Reviews of Sweet Land - A Love Story
DVD Review: A slow but lovely romance that is a meditation of love and land. Elizabeth Reaser is great!
Summary: 5 Stars
In a fair world, SWEET LAND would have made Elizabeth Reaser a star. Her performance is pitch-perfect and she is a very striking woman as well. And in a fair world, SWEET LAND would have been watched by more than half a dozen people.
It's a familiar kind of story: Reaser plays Inge, a young lady sent from Germany to Minnesota in the early 20th century to enter into an arranged marriage with Olaf, a young farmer originally from Norway. Inge arrives, speaking perhaps 10 words of English and very little Norwegian. Because the US has just finished up a war in which Germany was the enemy, the close-knit group of Norwegian farmers has a VERY difficult time accepting Inge as one of their own. In fact, because her papers aren't satisfactorily n order, the young couple is unable to marry. For awhile, Inge lives with Olaf's friend Frandsen (Alan Cumming), his wife (Alex Kingston) and their 9 or 10 children. They are welcoming of their new friend, but Inge must share a bed with several kids and has no privacy at all at the communal bathtub.
Olaf has barely spoken to his beautiful but frustrating bride-to-be Inge...but that changes when one early morning, she sneaks into his house to take a bath and falls asleep in the tub. Their first unescorted time together is rather funny, but it leads Olaf to also realize that he brought a woman to the US to help him farm, and by golly, that's what they're going to do...especially when Inge forces the issue and starts to demand chores and to know the names of his animals.
You can probably guess that a relationship blossoms between the two, but I must tell you that it is not reached via a familiar path. Olaf is a good, sturdy man unused to speaking much...much less to women. He is perplexed by this woman who has burst into his life, but has a grudging admiration too. He doesn't so much feel bad for the hardships she endures, but sees her worth as a person and potential wife. Inga, for her part, is willing to do her part in this arrangement, but she grows fond of Olaf in what is initially a merely friendly way. I won't say they are like brother and sister...but to say that they are lovers without physical contact isn't quite right either.
The film shows us their estrangement from the Norwegian community, who cannot accept this new German woman and her "dangerous German ways" into their midst...and Inge & Olaf suffer greatly for it. And the film shows how a greedy banker (Ned Beatty) keeps the community in his debt, literally. This is a terribly clichéd idea, yet it is handled in a manner to make it seem, if not new, then at least personal and particular enough to feel plausible. There is a scene when a family farm is put on the auction block, and the unceremoniousness and cruelty of it are heart-wrenching...made more so by the fact that it is done with utter calm.
In fact, most of SWEET LAND is calm. Inge IS capable of convincing shows of stormy emotion...but mostly the characters are quiet and unassuming. But this is not to say there is no passion. There is a scene when Olaf admits to Inge, "I know ducks dream." You'd never believe it reading it here, but that line is an emotional turning point for the film, a cry from the heart and a moment of quiet smoldering.
The film is SLOW. There are many lingering shots of the beautiful farm land (wheat and corn mostly) that are indulgent but stunning. The sky is of most gorgeous blue and the grass of the most startling green. I'd almost sworn I was looking at a Blu-Ray version of the film when I saw it on regular DVD...it's that saturated with color.
The story is told as a very long flashback...and I should warn viewers that the first ten minutes or so, set roughly in our times, are slow going indeed. Yet once we go back in time and meet Olaf & Inge, the film comes to lovely life.
Tim Guinee plays Olaf. He's an actor whose imdb biography has a rather impressively long list of credits, but frankly, the parts must have been small because I don't recognize him. But he takes the clichéd character of the taciturn, early American farmer and imbues it with new life and a quiet manliness that is understated yet totally convincing. And Elizabeth Reaser (enjoying fame currently as Esme in TWILIGHT) is stunning. The camera loves her, and spends a lot of time in close-ups of her face. We see the subtle plays of emotion there and it is very easy to find her completely convincing as a flesh-and-blood person we can easily care about. The relationship between Inge and Olaf is one of the best film romances I've seen in a long, long time. Alan Cummings, Alex Kingston, Paul Sands (in a small role, but it was good to see him again), Ned Beatty and John Heard provide solid support.
It can be tricky to find this film from 2005, but it is HIGHLY worth the trouble. While kids and teens would find the film crushingly slow-paced...I think adults with some patience will find themselves well rewarded. When the story of Inge and Olaf ended, I was genuinely sorry to know that I would spend no more time with them. See it!
Description of Sweet Land - A Love Story
Set in post-World War I Minnesota, a German woman arrives to meet the man she is to marry but the anti-German climate in the town creates obstacles for them.Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: PG
Release Date: 10-JUL-2007
Media Type: DVD
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