At Any Price - movie review

          “At Any Price” stars Dennis Quaid and Zac Efron as Henry and Dean Whipple, father and son seed farmers in rural Iowa. The son, Dean, aspires to a different career in race car driving and eschews anything related to the farm, including his father, who he has no respect for. Father Henry calls into question some of his own techniques in the highly competitive field of selling genetically modified seeds to farmers in the surrounding counties, which brings the unwanted scrutiny of the government.
          Henry desperately wants one of his sons to continue the multi-generational business but with his oldest son, Grant, climbing mountains in Argentina and Dean, rejecting him and his business outright, we see him walk out further on an ever narrowing plank over tumultuous water.
          I found myself holding my breath for much of this Greek tragedy of a movie, with its modernist meditations on death, loss and suffering. There is nothing subtle about its themes of love, aguish and the cost of success.  I was totally engaged in this film, so wanting it to go one way but knowing in my heart it would probably go another way.
          At the risk if giving away much of the enticing tension of this film, suffice it to say, while there may be questions about what happens after it’s over, there’s no question about what the conflicts are that surrounds Whipple and his family.
          Both Quaid and Efron are very believable in their performances of father and son determined to be together in a family yet individual enough to do things their own way, all the while wanting the approval from the other. Henry’s wife, Irene, played by Kim Dickens and his biggest seed competitor, Jim Johnson, played by Clancy Brown, strongly support the main characters and the quintessential “everything is at stake” story line.
          I recommend this film, not because it’s a blockbuster, which it isn’t, but because it’s yet another look into a different life than the one I live, a life that I can imagine exists yet am glad I’m just watching on the screen and not being a part of it myself. To see something different is the reason I go to the movies!

Four out of five possible ticket stubs.