*Spoilers* The ending made no sense. Either this is because it was done poorly by the director or the book isn't very good either. I'll get my hands on it and read it. How did it make more sense for the woman to invite a murderer in her home where her children slept to kill her as opposed to selling the farm and moving to her (inviting) sister until she gets a job that isn't a total loss. Because she liked the farm so much? How are her four per-pubescent kids with a creep father supposed to benefit from that?
The directing was actually really bad. Charlize Theron was oddly cast and nobody else seemed to make any sense either - a lot of really good actors just showed up to do some weird scenes and the were gone. Theron wonders from one scene to the next like she is hoping this will be over soon and she gets paid. The kids had most of the story and the boy who plays the brother is the only one that stands out. For some reason i really don't like Chloe G. Moretz, she always plays such unpleasant people. Great actress, just ... Creepy. Of course they chose her adult version well - all the women in this movie stand by their 'white trash once, white trash for ever', and it's even worse if they had rich mommy and daddy.
The one thing I liked somewhat were the costumes. (Not so much the make-up, because in one scene Theron's 'trailer trash tanned' face totally mismatches her chalk white hands, and the MUA seemed to only know how to apply eyeliner and not much else to make women seem trashy.) Although it feels like this takes course over three weeks and not one day and the lead COULD change her styling at least once, she is wonderfully locked in her own mental prison, as her brother points out - she cannot think outside herself at all. Her family is said to be incredibly poor, but I always imagined poor people to be, dunno, less neat and not quite so perfect. The hair of several actors has more character and message than their faces and clothes.
What went wrong?
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