The Ballad of Jack and Rose (2005)

Master filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu made one of his great masterworks about the unearthly devotion between a father and a daughter with 1949's "Late Spring". Director-screenwriter Rebecca Miller has a similar idea in mind here, as she has fashioned a story set in 1986 around the same inextricable bond between a 1960's drop-out Jack and his teenage daughter Rose on an isolated island. She has an intriguing idea for the film's theme, the disillusionment of the idealism borne out of the 1960's anti-war movement and the encroachment of capitalism upon a former commune's idyllic setting.

However, whereas Ozu uses narrative ellipses to let the story flow and lets the viewer respond emotionally, Miller does not reflect such an instinctive manner and has piled on soap opera conventions, heavy symbolism, a dominating soundtrack (lots of Bob Dylan) and lethargic pacing to add weight to her well-intentioned but significantly flawed 2005 movie. That's unfortunate since we expect more from a film starring the likes of Daniel Day-Lewis (Miller's husband) as Jack and Catherine Keener as his sometime hippie-earth mother girlfriend, Kathleen. Looking appropriately gaunt for a dying man, Day-Lewis infuses his trademark feral passion into the role and comes up with some genuinely incisive moments, though Miller gives him little more the liberal hermit archetype to play. Keener does not fare much better as her role is even more stereotypical than his, especially as Miller's contrived story turns make her acts more incomprehensible as the story trudges on. Oddly, she plays a comic variation on a very similar role in this year's "The 40 Year-Old Virgin" and is wonderful in that.

Camilla Belle is a lovely presence as Rose, and she does some strong work with the coming-of-age aspects of her character. Where the script fails her is in showing the motivation for her often extreme acts of hostility and manipulation to keep Rose's relationship with Jack isolated from the others. As a result, she comes across as petulant and childish rather than the puritanical soul Miller would like us to think she is. There are several performances in smaller roles worth mentioning - Ryan McDonald keenly aware as Kathleen's overweight, acerbic son, Rodney, who wants to be a hairdresser; Beau Bridges as the conciliatory land developer, Marty Rance; a surprisingly sensitive Jason Lee as a thoughtful gardener who bonds with Rose over their mutual love of flowers; and in the film's best performance, an almost unrecognizable Jena Malone as Rodney's wild-child friend, Red Berry.

Occasionally there are scenes that surprise with their originality like the final encounter between Jack and Marty. However, more often, there are several scenes that ring false, in particular, the back-projected home movies during the kids' recreation of a 1960's love-in party. The film's sluggish pace suddenly picks up toward the end when a series of events wrap up the loose ends of the story in too pat a manner including a totally unnecessary epilogue. Ellen Kuras's cinematography is almost too prettified given her predilection for impressionistic set-up shots. Miller shows signs of her father Arthur Miller's gravitas in her story, but she needs to work on maintaining interest in her film as the plot unfolds. Truth be told, I fell asleep twice before I could see the movie to the end. There are no extras with the DVD other than a few trailers for this and other independent films in release.

Fmovies: Even though I didn't entirely believe him in this role, he's such an outstanding actor that it held my attention.

This film is clearly an 'indy' film, and has many wonderful qualities. The photography, some of the acting, the scenery. Unfortunately, the script I found cloying and weak and entirely unbelievable, it sidestepped the creepy incestuous moments that it evoked, and felt a little like watching a scene from a writers workshop at times.

That being said- Daniel Day Lewis. He makes it all worthwhile.

It's worth a rent, and I do look forward to whatever Ms. Miller does next, and I hope she has a long career. It's wonderful to find a woman filmmaker who is willing to explore difficult themes, I just wish this film had been better.

There's nothing more exciting than seeing quality work come from a group of unknowns. While Daniel Day Lewis and Catherine Keener are the marquee name anchors for the film the most delightful surprises come from Camilla Bell and Ryan McDonald who give honest and often very mature performances. McDonald in particular has a knack for off-beat humor and gets some of the best lines in the film. Given the gorgeous setting, the beautiful cinematography and the high caliber writing I can't think of a better film I've seen so far this year. The movie is not without its flaws, but they're minimal in relation to all the elements that are wonderfully right.

The Ballad of Jack and Rose fmovies. Loved the movie. The beautiful story went well with the picturesque setting in our smallest Canadian province on the east coast, Prince Edward Island, where the movie was filmed. Daniel Day Lewis was great. I wonder, did he have to lose a lot of weight to play the part? Ryan MacDonald did an excellent job and gave the movie some comedic relief. It brought back memories of the good old commune days! Maybe a return to those days might do our world some good. Beau Bridges gave a good performance as well but the sweet innocence of Rose was really the essence of the movie. You could feel the love connection between her and her father, be it father/daughter love or the love felt between lovers.

My pick for male Oscar winner so far this year is Daniel Day-Lewis as an eccentric father of a precocious girl in The Ballad of Jack and Rose.

I don't think the bard suggested incest on the menu for Prospero and Miranda, but in this ballad dad and daughter alone on a remote peninsula off the East coast are not fighting just real estate developers and dad's lovers, they are dealing with incestuous feelings so subtly relayed that even our delicately Christian president might not be offended.

I have five beautiful daughters in the healthiest of relationships, but that a man alone with a bright, loving, free-spirited daughter could go to the dark side is the genius of this parable about the difficulties of living outside societal norms, which sometimes are fortunately restrictive of baser instincts.

Day-Lewis's conflicted protagonist is a marvelous piece of acting, the best of his career, and the most interesting this year.

Any film starring the Daniel Day Lewis is a pretty safe bet. Although indisputably sexy, he grabs the roles which once were only for 'character actors', which in Hollywood meant past the best, not-bland, kooky, or downright ugly. This time, he's an ageing hippy from Motherwell (judging by his impeccable accent), living on in an abandoned commune with Rose, his daughter (Camilla Belle) who has been so well kept away from the corrupting influences of the outside world that she behaves like his clone, or sister, or lover. Nothing lasts for ever, and here it's Jack's failing health and Rose's growing up that threaten the status quo. Jack's attempt to patch up his way of life which is falling apart like the commune house itself, means importing his actual lover, who brings her two sons. Awkwardly for Jack, all these people have their own lives and aspirations, which is something he will have become unaccustomed to on his little island, and the clash leads everyone in directions none of them expected. A further complication is the building of a dinky housing estate which Jack's terrorist policies cannot halt, and again, the man responsible for this inroad from the modern world turns out to be a human, too. The story raises lots of questions about freedom and responsibility; not least through the fact that Jack can only live his pure, undefiled life because of inherited money. The plot is full of surprises and so are the cast, negotiating a multi-layered web of intrigue with as much delicacy as strength. Rebecca Miller clearly is a writer of singular imagination, and if this, her third film (although she started acting on-screen in 1988) is the way she intends to keep directing, then that's just fine. CLIFF HANLEY