I have to wonder if the cohesion that might have held this movie together is lying on the cutting room floor. There are so many subplots that are never properly developed and not tied up at the end. I stumbled into this movie thinking it was some Sci-Fi work (as described by the on screen analysis of "on demand.") I just wanted a movie to put me to sleep. This wasn't that movie. Locusts did not take over the planet. But I was immediately struck by the brooding nature of the direction and how it drew me into the movie. However, sometimes I felt like it was some mini-series I had missed the first episode of. Some of the performances were good, but the plot meandered along until it suddenly became hurried. In the last 10 minutes the "mother" tells of her rape by her father, her son drowns himself, somehow, in the gelding shed and the mother finally did the world a favor and shot herself. Fortunately our hero and heroine ride off into the sunset in their maroon pick up truck and we're marooned, wondering if this is a happy ending or not... that is if you can consider a man who raped and murdered a woman a "hero." In the end, it didn't put me to sleep, but made me wonder why I had stayed up so late.

This is the second movie in a row that I've watched which has good acting but is let down by a wayward script. I was amazed at Ashley Judd's commanding performance as Kitty. All credit too for Kate Capshaw, Jeremy Davies and Vince Vaughn. The pace of the whole movie was painfully slow and the ending was a huge disappointment. The castrating of bulls was really excessive and unnecessary. Watch this as a measure of how big a star Ashley Judd will become.

Will the real Vince Vaughn please come forward and do some more acting like this. He really stood out in this picture. Although not the best I have ever seen, the movie kept me intrigued to the very end. It had all the stuff great movies are made of...sweaty 120 degree weather...ice tea in mason jars...family secrets...the shirtless ranch hand in the spare room... the sultry older woman who lusts after him...and plenty of cigarettes...