In 1998, a 27-year-old Matt Damon won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar with friend Ben Affleck for co-writing “Good Will Hunting”. Since then Damon’s become better known for his acting talent and familiar roles, most notably Jason Bourne in the “Bourne” films. But with “Promised Land” he returns to writing and with a new partner, “The Office”‘s John Krasinski. And he’s reunited with “Hunting” director Gus Van Sant. And he and Krasinski also star in the film. All the right pieces were in place but unfortunately “Promised Land” doesn’t fully come together.
Damon plays Steve, a salesman for a natural gas company called Global. He has a project partner named Sue (Frances McDormand) and their job is to go to small towns where natural gas deposits have been discovered deep underground and persuade homeowners to make deals with their land so Global can then drill down and get the gas. This is called “fracking” and it’s a real-life, controversial issue that’s going on in Northeastern U.S. states today. The film is set in Pennsylvania. The main selling point: poor families need the money and could become rich from the profits of the sale of the natural gas on their property. Steve and Sue, who are very good at what they do, think it’s going to be easy convincing the home-owners to sign-on. But they run into some major problems.
At a public meeting, an out-of-retirement school science teacher (played by Hal Holbrook) questions Global’s plans. He believes fracking is dangerous, that it will pollute the town’s water and all the animals and crops will die. The mayor is also unsure, and many of the townspeople are against the idea as well. So there has to be a vote a vote. And just like with a political campaign, there always has to be someone representing the other side. Krasinski’s Dustin works for an environmental company named Athena. His goal is to stop the fracking, and he uses plenty of scare tactics in an effort to keep Global from winning.
“Promised Land”‘s narrative is very straight-forward. And the script is dialogue-driven. There are no chase scenes or special effects. As with most “issue” films many of the scenes go on longer than they should and there’s a little too much “inside” information. But the film does a nice job of laying-out both sides of the fracking argument clearly and makes valid points for each. And look is impressive. Van Sant captures the look and feel of rural Pennsylvania, setting the perfect tone of this story. The problem with “Promised Land” is that there just isn’t enough real drama to make us care about the outcome.
Damon has some strong moments. His character is determined throughout to win this battle and he expresses that passion while staying in control. McDormand is solid, and while Krasinski doesn’t have a huge role, he does shine in one key scene with Damon towards the end of the film. Holbrook is excellent in the few scenes he has. And Rosemarie DeWitt plays a grade school teacher who both Steve and Dustin become interested in – a weak and predictable subplot.
There’s a 60-minute story here that had to be stretched to 95. So, along with the romances (Sue also gets involved with the gun shop owner), there’s plenty of extra dialogue that just comes-off as phony and a few unrealistic filler scenes.
The fracking issue is red-hot right now in Hollywood. HBO’s anti-fracking documentary “Gasland” first brought the issue to light in 2010 and “Gasland 2” is in the works. Plus the pro-fracking doc “FrackNation” was purchased by Mark Cuban’s AXS TV and used it to counter the anti-fracking movement.
This real-life battle is much more interesting and exciting than anything that happens in “Promised Land”, which is rated R for some adult language.
On The Official LCJ Report Card, “Promised Land” gets a C+.