From a distance Ewan McGregor has always seemed like a pretty smart guy with genuinely good taste. As an actor he’s worked with some of the most creative filmmakers working today including Danny Boyle (“Trainspotting”), Baz Luhrmann (“Moulin Rouge!”), Mike Mills (“Beginners”), Todd Haynes (“Velvet Goldmine”) and Ridley Scott (“Black Hawk Down”). That’s one reason it’s so puzzling that McGregor’s directorial debut, “American Pastoral,” is such a bland dud. Even if the Brit had issues adapting Philip Roth’s 1997 novel you would have thought it might have some of it’s visual style or arresting aesthetic, right? Wrong.
Filmmakers have always had a notoriously tough time adapting Roth’s novels to the big screen, although James Schamus had notable success with “Indignation” earlier this year. What’s so strange about screenwriter John Romano (“The Lincoln Lawyer”) and McGregor’s attempt is that the basic plot line of “Pastoral” should be compelling enough material for even a passably watchable movie. Instead, Romano has made some confusing changes from the novel (including the ending) and peppers the narrative with too many period cliché’s.
The film begins in what has to be the early to mid 1990’s (the novel sets it in 1995, but the film purposely never clarifies) where our narrator, writer Nathan Zuckerman (David Strathairn as Roth’s infamous alter ego) is reluctantly attending his 40th high school reunion. He runs into Jerry Levov (Rupert Evans in pretty good old age makeup) who informs him that his older brother and Zuckerman’s childhood hero, Seymour ‘The Swede’ Levov (McGregor), has passed away at the age of 68. Zuckerman then hears Jerry tell the tale of how everyone’s All-American (you name the sport, he ruled it) saw his life fall apart.
READ MORE: Ewan McGregor Gets His Philip Roth On In the First Trailer For ‘American Pastoral’
After a short stint in the military, The Swede took over his father’s glove making business and married the enchanting and smart Dawn (Jennifer Connelly), a former Miss New Jersey. The couple lived on a farm in Old Rimrock, about 30 miles outside of Newark. They have one daughter, Merry (initially played by Ocean James and then Hannah Nordberg) who has had a severe stuttering issue even at a young age.
To the Swede, Merry seems like any other 12-year-old girl until an incident driving home one day. After giving her a peck on the cheek Merry asks for him to kiss her “properly.” Slightly taken aback, The Swede gives her another kiss on the cheek. Merry replies, “Kiss me like you’d kiss mother.” Startled, he then notices that Merry is trying to be seductive by pulling her dress strap over her shoulder. The Swede quickly shuts this down, but it’s just the beginning of a dangerously rebellious period in Merry’s life.
By the time Merry is 16 (now played by Dakota Fanning), she’s transformed into the textbook definition of a ‘60s radical and has segued from being a rebellious teenager to a combative one. When a homemade bomb goes off in Old Rimrock’s post office she mysteriously disappears and becomes the no. 1 suspect. What follows next are years of The Swede and his wife trying to find out where she’s gone and if she was responsible for the bombing or not.
The toll of Merry’s disappearance causes Dawn to have a nervous breakdown and, despite her husband’s concerns, she eventually attempts to reinvent her life by forgetting all about her daughter. The Swede, on the other hand, is obsessed with locating her and gets mixed up with an associate of Merry’s (Valorie Curry) who the audience will immediately clock as having no real intention of helping him.
While the search for Merry is the film’s primary storyline there are numerous historical spotlights along the way, including a lengthy segment on the 1967 Newark Riots, that simply don’t inform the rest of the picture. McGregor’s biggest problem, however, is that as a director he cannot find a way to ground the material so this family’s problems have a shred of realism to them. Whatever nuance Roth has infused in his prose is completely missing here. That’s most evident by McGregor’s own on screen performance.
Despite one dramatic confrontation late in the picture The Swede feels passively one note to all the events going on around him. There is no subtlety to the character nor do you ever believe he was this beloved figure Zuckerman speaks off. It often feels as though McGregor is simply miscast in his own picture.
Connelly, who has strangely starred in just one significant film over the past decade (“Noah”), is simply off her game here. She looks the part, but her portrayal of Dawn is so arch you never have a shred of sympathy for her or feel she’s conveying any genuine emotion.
As for Fanning, she has the unfortunate job of playing a character whose stutter dominates so much of her dialogue. Neither she nor McGregor find the proper balance of staying true to Merry’s disorder and not turning it into a sideshow distraction as too often you simply have no idea what she’s saying.
All of “Pastoral’s” problems could have been slightly forgiven if McGregor showed a hint of inspiration behind the camera. Perhaps Roth’s material was too big a challenge to tackle the first time out of the gate. Maybe McGregor misjudged how to handle it from the beginning. And yet, first film aside, we simply expected more. [C-]
This is a reprint of our review from the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival.
