American Pastoral (2016)

An All-American college star and his beauty queen wife watch their seemingly perfect life fall apart as their daughter joins the turmoil of '60s America.

Director:

Ewan McGregor

Writers:

Philip Roth (based on the novel by), John Romano (screenplay by)

Stars:

Ewan McGregor, Jennifer Connelly, Dakota Fanning

1 win & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ewan McGregor	...	Swede Levov
Jennifer Connelly	...	Dawn Levov
Dakota Fanning	...	Merry Levov
Peter Riegert	...	Lou Levov
Rupert Evans	...	Jerry Levov
Uzo Aduba	...	Vicky
Molly Parker	...	Sheila Smith
Valorie Curry	...	Rita Cohen
Hannah Nordberg	...	Merry (12 Years Old)
Julia Silverman	...	Sylvia Levov
Mark Hildreth	...	Agent Dolan
Samantha Mathis	...	Penny Hamlin
David Strathairn	...	Nathan Zuckerman
Ocean James	...	Merry (8 Years Old) (as Ocean Nalu James)
David Whalen	...	Bill Orcutt

Storyline

Seymour Levov, going by the nickname of 'Swede' in the Jewish community he was born into, was even more of an all-American than Douglas Fairbanks himself. He had just everything an American idol can dream of: not only was the tall muscular young man a high school star athlete but he married a beauty queen named Dawn in the bargain. And as if all this were not enough, Swede later became the successful manager of the glove factory his father had founded, which allowed him to live with his wife in a beautiful house in the New Jersey countryside. Well-mannered, always bright, smiling and positive, conservative but with a liberal edge, what bad could ever happen to him? And yet...this was reckoning without fate and its obnoxious irony, Swede and Dawn's nemesis manifesting itself in the person of Merry, their beloved daughter who in her teens unexpectedly turned into a violent activist.

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Plot Keywords:

1960s radical | social criticism | vietnam war | father daughter relationship | 1960s | 

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Taglines:

A radically ordinary story.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some strong sexual material, language and brief violent images

Did You Know?

Trivia

Jennifer Connelly told The Times in Oct. 2016: "...there's a scene where I'm naked and dancing around freely in a state by myself..." She had to wear an "embarrassing" hairpiece while shooting the scene to mimic a more bouffant style of pubic hair to fit the film's 1960s setting. She added that she finds on-screen nudity difficult. Even though she has performed nude in previous films, she admitted "I felt exposed in a lot of ways. I have never done anything like it before. After they shouted cut, I just hid in my trailer."

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Goofs

When Swede and teen Merry talk in her bedroom, the LP cover at the front of a stack of records on the floor changes.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Nathan Zuckerman: [narrating as WWII era dance music plays] Let's remember the energy. America had won the war. The depression was over. Sacrifice was over. The upsurge of life was contagious. We celebrated a moment of collective inebriation that we would never know again. Nothing like it in all the years that followed from our childhood until tonight, the 45th reunion of our high school class.
Nathan Zuckerman: [now walking down a school hallway] At 30 or 40, a gathering of my old classmates would have been exactly the...

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Connections

Featured in The Graham Norton Show: Danny DeVito/Ewan McGregor/Sam Neill/Miranda Hart/John Bishop/Amber Riley (2016)

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Soundtracks

Moon River
Written by Henry Mancini, Johnny Mercer

User Reviews

American Pastoral (2016)

I really like the Fanning sisters so I'll basically watch anything with them. I was also curious about this film because its the directional debut of Ewan McGregor. I went in blind not knowing what the film would bring but it seemed to have a strong cast, and for the little buzz it generated it remained something that I really wanted to check out. I think its a solid debut for McGregor as a filmmaker but can't escape being too dull at times.

The film is based on a novel about a family with a daughter with a speech impediment. She witnesses a traumatic scene of the infamous monk setting himself on fire in television. After this childhood incident Merry (Fanning's character) becomes a radical opponent of war. She starts out vehemently opposing Lyndon Johnson and the war efforts but eventually becomes the culprit in a murder after a bomb goes off. Swede (Ewan McGregor) spends most of the film trying to find his estranged daughter and find out why she is the way she is.

I think the film has strong performances as you would expect from the cast of this caliber. You immediately see the disenchantment of youth in Fanning's character and understand how radical she is in her anti-war stance. Her pained relationship with her mother is stated quite well, and the uncomfortably in it drives her mother mad. I had no problems with the character interactions, however the film cannot escape feeling dull and prolonged. You don't care enough to follow Swede as he tries to find his daughter, and when you finally find her, its just very underwhelming.

Its hard to care for Fanning's character as she's unlikable from the get go. The film doesn't offer much else outside of a quest for a character you'd rather remain lost. The method of storytelling does not always prosper as it goes through periods of stalling and the payoff isn't really entertaining. It gets very lost in an antiwar shuffle and remains shallow despite trying to go deep. I'd say its exciting to see McGregor get behind the camera but his first adaptation does not have enough life.

6/10

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official Site

Country:

Hong Kong USA

Language:

English Hebrew

Release Date:

21 October 2016 (USA)

Also Known As:

American Pastoral

Filming Locations:

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$149,038, 23 October 2016

Gross USA:

$544,098

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$2,063,436

Company Credits

Production Co:

Lionsgate, Lakeshore Entertainment, TIK Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Surround 7.1 Dolby Digital Dolby Atmos

Color:

Color Black and White (archive footage)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1