Promised Land 2012

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: The movie slogs along like a Grant Wood farmer behind his plow. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: "Promised Land" is a fine place to start appreciating Matt Damon, who always makes it seem as if everybody else is acting and he's just going through the movie being natural. Read more

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: One of several ways this ... picture falls short is in trying to sell a personal-salvation story as a salve to the conundrum it presents. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: "Promised Land" feels divided against itself, not quite sure how to reconcile its polemical intentions with its storytelling impulses, and thus finally unable to fulfill its own promise. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: "Promised Land" offers an experience that's alternately amusing and frustrating, full of impassioned earnestness as well as saggy sections. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: While there's little doubt about where "Promised Land" is going (you don't think a Gus Van Sant movie is going to side with a corporation, do you?), it's a pleasure to watch it go there. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: No one seems to recognize the irony of making a film about corporate rigging that is itself outrageously rigged. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: It's a fine line between interesting characters and "Northern Exposure" quirk, but the movie mostly stays on the right side of it. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: A love triangle involving the two men and a local schoolteacher (Rosemarie DeWitt) seems more like a commercial necessity than an integral part of the story, and the small-town types are indifferently realized by director Gus Van Sant. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The script is unconvincing; two key narrative twists, one related to the other, are deeply hokey. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Promised Land is more effective as an anti-fracking screed than as a drama. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: [It's mostly] a well-wrought drama that feels genuine as it goes about spinning a tale worthy of our challenging times. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: This isn't a movie about easy fixes, be they personal or political; it's a film about long-term problems. Read more

Cary Darling, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: The movie threatens to become one of those late '60s/early '70s heavy-handed message movies, but it's somewhat salvaged by Damon's innate likability and the chemistry among the cast. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Damon and Krasinski co-wrote the script, and they do a nice job of giving the usual confrontations a gentle and surprising spin. Read more

Amanda Mae Meyncke, Film.com: ...This is no vanity project, but a real, solid and legitimate piece of filmmaking. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: Promised Land presents its environmental concerns in a clear, upfront manner but hits some narrative and character bumps in the second half that weaken the impact of this fundamentally gentle, sympathetic work. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: When you add in the plot contrivances that cluster around its finale, "Promised Land" concludes as an echo of a convincing film rather than the real deal. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: Damon and McDormand are terrific as co-workers seeking the same goal, though they see their work from different points of view. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: A well-intentioned look at a fraught issue, but the Damon-Krasinski screenplay ultimately opts for Hollywood oversimplification. Read more

Richard Brody, New Yorker: Whatever ambiguity the movie's core lacks is rebalanced at the surface; its organic textures are woven on a conspicuously synthetic frame. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Matt Damon's new film "Promised Land" starts off on the right foot - and then shoots itself in it. Read more

Jeannette Catsoulis, NPR: Though the film eventually caves to sentiment and stereotype, its alert performances and muted rhythms offer much to enjoy in the interim. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: There's a lightness of touch here that makes its level-headed advocacy go down smooth as lager, and allows some quiet room for thought. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Damon wants to put you in Very Serious mode and have you think of "issue movies" like "The China Syndrome," but all I could do was laugh and think of "Lolita." Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Promised Land is a frustrating film to watch. It should be better than this, smarter than this. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: It's as if the people behind Promised Land only agreed to make the movie if there was an unambiguous "policy statement" at the end, and that's what we're subjected to. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: This is a solid if at times too conventional tale of a classic moral conflict. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Promised Land is a potent and powerful look at how the stressed economy is stressing farm communities across America. Director Gus Van Sant finds the human side of a knotty issue. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The 50/50 split between profiteers and tree-huggers might reflect the nation as a whole, but it makes for diluted drama. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Far too awkward and contrived a drama to change many hearts and minds. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: While there's no faulting the talent or good intentions of the people involved, however, they make the mistake of leaving out the spoonful of sugar, which makes the medicine get stuck in your throat. It's all message and very little movie. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: The kind of earnest, oversimplified big-issues drama that Hollywood loves to foist on audiences as seasonal proof of its serious-mindedness. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Damon's performance as corporate salesman Steve Butler is one of his best. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: A quietly absorbing if finally somewhat dubious drama about an unlikely anti-corporate crusader. Read more

Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice: Promised Land is a hard-sell movie because it doesn't have the confidence in its audience to make any other outcome seem personally viable, to give the opposition a fighting chance or persuasive voice. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Despite their Everyman appeal, Damon and Krasinski don't create much by way of emotional investment, instead becoming mirror images of their most mild-mannered, white-bread selves. Read more