Watch The Ballad of Jack and Rose For Free

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

"The Ballad of Jack and Rose" is a subtle character based drama about a father and daughter living a rather bucolic lifestyle only for it to get shattered by three newbies who arrived on the scene. Sure the characters were well fleshed out, but that's what this film has to offer and nothing more. Sure these individuals lives have changed which was handled very well be writer/director Rebecca Miller. She brings life into these characters and gives them the liberation to flourish in their status quo.The story has a bit of a modernized version of The Garden of Eden along with snakes in both the figurative and literal sense. At most this film is just saturated with symbolism made famous by her playwright father Arthur Miller. Jack Slavin (Daniel Day-Lewis) and is daughter Rose (Camilla Belle) have lived in solidarity in a commune on an island in the American East Coast. They live off the land resourcefully by organically growing their own food and utilize in providing their own electricity via windmills and don't rely on anyone outside their domain. The only non-resident who come by is a gardener named Gray (Jason Lee) who offers Rose flowers to plant, since being in her garden is where she spends most of her days. When news that Jack is dying from a heart condition, he fears that when dies Rose will likely soon follow. He then soon invites a middle-aged lady named Kathleen (Catherine Keener) and her two sons Rodney and Thaddius (Ryan McDonald and Paul Dano) to be house guests permanently. This surprises and unsettles Rose as she shifts her innocent ways and a swift turn on her father Jack.The balancing of this movie is to pave ways to certain components contrary to one another consumerism against idealism, sting in the past or moving on, making strides or staying putt. Miller succeeds in handling these issues unbiased. There are both good and bad sides to everything. Unfortunately,Jack's pro-stagnation beliefs can clearly and understandably be contrasted by Marty Rance's (Beau Bridges) pro-progression and the conflicts between them can be proven very inane at times. It is really forced down our throats that Jack is the protagonist and the worse thing is that Jack knows it.The aforementioned snake that causes the inevitable break-up between Jack and Kathleen which leads to her and her two sons to part ways leads to the return of Rose's back on happy terms again. Jack and Rose were okay before Kathleen and her sons came into their lives. Sex plays a pivotal role here as Jack and Kathleen take themselves to a place of consummate where they commit intercourse, instead of feeling warm inside, you feel the intensity burning in Rose's eyes as jealousy starts to manifest in her head. There's even a point where she becomes nearly homicidal as she tries to murder Kathleen or even her father. While this is happening, Rose feels that she herself could find a way to lose her virginity.Some people go through such great lengths to fit into those roles they even sacrifice their own bodies to make us feel sympathy for them. Daniel Day-Lewis did just that as when bare-chested he looks gaunt and semi-skeletal in appearance. Even though he's under his wife, Miller's direction, we know he can always muster in a great performance without being a slacker. Camilla Belle who is not a household name in Hollywood displays great acting which could feel like a breakthrough performance for her. Catherine Keener is great as always showing just how versatile she is as a performer.Sure the contrivances are quite frequent in "The Ballad of Jack and Rose", but it all gets concealed due to likable characters that we don't ever observe them. Sure the pace is slower than molasses, but it was done on purpose by Miller, can make fans feel very unsettled by it. I agree, it is losing a turtle race in its pacing, but this gives the characters ample time to develop and to make the audience become invested in them.

Haven't see this film for a while. From the first time watching it the only scene i remembered was the kid falling out of the tree house. Well, after watching it a second time,, I'm still not sure what to make of it. For starts, the self righteous main character is horribly flawed. He condemns the builder for being a business man, and yet he himself is living off an inheritance and contributes nothing to society. He has done his daughter a terrible disservice by keep her alone on an island with no friends, socialization, no real schooling, and no idea what the real world is about. The daughter is some kind of mental case. First she brings the shotgun into her fathers bedroom, then tries to kill the girlfriend with a snake. The rest of the younger characters are just unappealing.

Good actors and good acting were not enough to save this movie.The Fathers intentions to become an anarchist hippy and enter a family into it; his intentions to remove his daughter from school at the age of 11 and try to teach her what HE thought were important tools for life for her; his intentions to keep her isolated from wicked society to the point where she was socially and morally stunted; his intentions of springing a nearly moral-free girlfriend and her two boys upon her (when she wasn't even aware that he had one)not because he loved the woman but because he needed someone who'd take care of his daughter when he died (he was ill), were all good intentions. Unfortunately, they just were never effective and sound intentions.His expectations upon his young daughter were unrealistic and it forced her into taking negative actions/reactions, because she was so socially inept from isolation, and not nearly equipped to handle a situation of three complete strangers moving into their quiet and peaceful existence. They meet for the first time when she's moving in with her sons - I guess it never occurred to the woman either that more sound and moral steps should be taken?? Then to hop in the sack with each other nearly immediately after showing up, and when the kids were present, really showed the audience just how self-centered these two characters really were.They show that he doesn't even love the woman right when her character is introduced when he meets her at her place in town. He doesn't even say hello, yet he just grabs her and 'does his business on her'. Thankfully, he does offer a tad bit of conversation to her afterward. The second sign that shows the real status of this relationship is when he pays her a fat check to move in with him - and she accepted it!! I think it was quite apparent that she would've shacked up with him for free. The third sign, is when she tries to get an idea if he truly wants her there and if he's in love with her - and by his responses it's pretty clear that he likes her, he likes the act of sex, but he is in no way in love with her. Yes, of course, this woman with a high self esteem and moral base still moves in with him. Smart move, Mama.Then comes a barrage of issues after they move in. The real emotionally stunted and badly behaved children in this film are the two legal adults - Jack and the shack-me-up girlfriend. It's appalling how surprised and shocked they are when the kids start acting out. Duuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...........................OK, so situations are rectified, and lessons are FINALLY LEARNED, and he gives her a check for $15,000 to move out, but she wants $20,000 - fine. All is right with the world again. THEN!!! to make this snoooore of a movie even over-the-top worse, they just HAD to add a touch of incest between the Father and daughter, AND (wait, there is more!)to add salt to the wound, they even made it RECIPROCAL. Good job, fellas. Kudos. Yer terrific. The cake already fell. Please, don't bother to try to frost it at this late date. Just throw it in the trash (which is where this movie belongs).Don't waste your time watching this. You will regret being robbed of your precious 2 hours of life. If you insist on watching it, be sure to have plenty of tasks to do at hand so it's not a complete waste of time.

The Ballad of Jack & Rose A compelling look @ a father and daughter on an island commune-Daniel day Lewis shares his own island refuge with his 13 year old daughter- they live off the land - it is idyllic,peaceful,perfect- but Jack is getting sick and he needs help.It is hard for me to be objective about this film- since I was snagged from Suburbia by my parents and subjected to farm life for most of my formative years.They did a good job capturing the good and bad parts of living off the land.But of course all things must have act 2 conflicts-Beau Bridges is an evil developer building cookie-cutter dwellings(It is frustrating how generic housing is now) and Katherine Keener is sort of hired to be a surrogate mom for Rose- the experiment yields drama.This is a well told and acted flick and will probably hit home for other granola generation offspring like myself. B+