Mud - movie review

          Mud, staring Matthew McConaughey as the title character, is a love story. It tells the tale of two 14 year-old boys, Ellis and Neckbone, who live in grimy, makeshift houseboats in Arkansas. The boys buzz around their Mississippi River ‘backyard' in a aluminum dory and one day discover, on a small island nearby, the unusual sight of a small cabin boat suspended high in the trees, obviously left over from a previous flood. That’s where they meet Mud who is hiding out in the cabin of the boat.

          Mud is in love with Juniper (Reese Witherspoon) and is being pursued by bounty hunters for killing a man in Texas who hurt her. The young boys, believing true love is paramount, become inextricably involved in helping Mud find Juniper and in evading the gang who is after him. Interwoven around this main theme is the story of other love relationships:  Ellis’ parents’ struggle with love for each other, Ellis for an ‘older’ girl at school, and Miller (Mud’s father or uncle?) for Mud.

          As the first half hour of the film flows as slowly as the Mississippi past their houseboats, it picks up speed as the boys run messages between Mud and Juniper, who is at a dive motel in town and as they steal all the necessary equipment Mud needs in order to get the boat-in-the-trees running and as they sneak in and out of their homes with food and tools for Mud.

          The film does an excellent job of meshing potent love into a gritty story of disappointment, death and destruction. Ellis’ dad says, “You can’t trust love,” but Ellis risks his young neck exactly for the powerful pull of romantic love, both Mud and Juniper’s and his own for the girl at school.

          I really enjoyed this film. I am especially impressed when actors truly become the characters. Instead of Matthew McConaughey made up to be Mud, he truly was the complicated and violent man driven to rash actions by love. Tye Sheridan, who plays 14-year-old Ellis does an outstandingly convincing job of portraying a young boy who is struggling to find examples of love that have meaning for him. In addition, he gets a slew of examples of the hurt and pain that is also created by love.

Four out of possible five ticket stubs