Leaves of Grass

Reviews from the Dark Side presents:
Leaves of Grass
Released 2009, now on DVD

In this quirky comedy, Edward Norton plays the role of twins Bill and Brady Kincaid.  Bill is years removed from his Oklahoma roots.  He has made a name for himself as an Ivy League professor at Brown University.  Brady on the other hand, is a small time pot grower in Oklahoma who has learned how to grow some of the best marijuana in the area.  Brady is equally as brilliant as Bill.  Actually Brady has a higher IQ than Bill according to their mother. 

Brady has gotten himself into some trouble.  He owes a high end dealer a couple hundred thousand dollars for his sophisticated pot growing equipment.  The dealer is Pug Rothbaum (played by Richard Dreyfuss).  Brady has a pregnant girlfriend who he has promised that he will stop growing weed except for himself when the child his born.  Brady delivers the message to two of Rothbaum's dealers that he has no intention of expanding his business despite the large sum of money he owes their boss.  Brady comes up with an elaborate plan involving his twin.  He needs to extract himself from the situation, but, that means tricking the local sheriff who is watching Brady and tracking North to meet Pug himself.  However, going North means traveling territory that belongs to pot growers that used to supply Pug before Brady.  Needless to say, these growers aren't fond of Brady.  But how does he get his brother back to Oklahoma?  Bill never returns Brady's calls and hasn't visited since he left for the East coast.  He wants no part of what he believes to be his "backwater" family.  So Brady has his partner Bolger contact Bill to report that Brady has been murdered by a crossbow.  When Bill arrives in Tulsa, he's greeted by Bolger who takes him to a small market to get a drink.  Unfortunately, it is a market frequented by rival pot growers who hate Brady.  Bill is on the wrong end of a beatdown until Bolger saves him from further injury.  So now it appears the plan will work as planned with enemies mistaking Bill as Brady with a haircut and a shave (oh, and Bolger did give Brady's hat to Bill to wear).  Now it's time for Brady to reveal he's still alive to Bill.  Predictably, he's not too happy he was duped into making the trek to Oklahoma.  Somehow Brady does convince him to stay through the weekend while he puts his master plan in motion.  Bill has no idea what Brady's plans are.  He visits his mother (Susan Sarandon) in a resthome the next day and manages to fool the local sheriff.  Here's a glimpse into the mother's mentally.  She's in the resthome not because she needs to be there.  She just likes it there.    She's also the one who introduced the twins to pot.  Bill isn't fond of how he and Brady were raised by their mother.  Brady and Bolger meet with Pug while Bill is at the resthome.  The meeting ends violently.  The rest of the movie involves a fake hate crime, a crazy stranger that Bill meets on the plane to Tulsa, and a real crossbow incident.

The movie has a great cast with Edward Norton, Richard Dreyfuss, and Susan Sarandon.  Edward Norton is one of the most underrated actors today in my opinion.  Amazing he hasn't won an Oscar yet.  He transitions from the educated Bill to the brilliant bumpkin Brady flawlessly, accent and all.  The movie also stars Keri Russell, Tim Blake Nelson (writer and director), Melanie Lynskey (Rose in Two and Half Men) , Maggie Siff (Tara in Sons of Anarchy) in supporting roles.  This movie is a nice way to spend a lazy afternoon.  Not out of this world good, but highly entertaining.

The Dark Lord of the Sith says:

***stars(out of 5)

Ratings Legend
Zero *= Don't waste your time. Pure dreck! Dreck is too good for this! Blind me please!
1 *= Fuggedaboutit!
2 *= Average, Mediocre, Nothing Special
3 *= Good viewing. Much better than a poke in the eye.
4 *= Great. Could possibly foot the price of a non-Matinee. Buy this on DVD when released!
5 *= Pure eye candy. Hall of Fame material here. Get this DVD goes without saying.