Current Film Review: Ain't Them Bodies Saints

Ain't Them Bodies Saints is a 2013 indie film that won a prize at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, and has attracted good press, including a rave review I read in The New Yorker. So, with that glowing buildup, I went to check it out at the cinema, and I came away with a mixed reaction. I'll share only what doesn't constitute a spoiler, or at least what I see as one. Casey Affleck as Bob Muldoon and Rooney Mara as Ruth Guthrie give strong performances in their roles as star-crossed lovers in 1970s rural Texas. Bob has a penchant for stealing money, and Ruth seems to go alongbecause she's so in love with him. They get caught, and Bob is sent away to serve 25 to life for wounding a deputy sheriff in the shootout. Ruth is pregnant and has a baby girl she names Sylvie. Bob busts out of the state pen and returns to get his Ruth and Sylvie. Of course they face obstacles, and Bob is one determined desperado. I'm a big fan of backstory in fiction and film, and I just don't get enough of it here. I wanted to care more about their relationship. Anyway, Keith Carradine plays a meaty role as the easy-mannered hardware storekeeper who is also a local crime boss. The outstanding acting and convincing setting left me with an overall favorable opinion of what could easily pass for the country noir of Daniel Woodrell, William Gay, Tom Franklin, or Ron Rash.