Day #67 - The Ballad of Jack and Rose

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I can't believe it took me so long to watch this movie - as a huge Daniel Day-Lewis fan I should have been all over it. The Ballad of Jack and Rose was written and directed by Rebecca Miller, daughter of famed playwright Arthur Miller and wife of Daniel Day-Lewis (which, I can't really imagine - I wonder what that's like?!). For the first half hour or so of the movie, I could NOT take my eyes off of DDL. For the FIRST time ever, I felt like he was so exposed - here I was looking at the closest thing to the actual man - not a character. When you see Bill the Butcher or Daniel Plainview, the last person you see is DDL. But here - it was different - he wore clothes like what he typically wears, he spoke with a Scottish accent, very similar to the British accent he would normally speak in, his hair was as it typically is and he even had his earring in. I felt like this was as close as I would come to seeing him raw.

Jack and Rose are a father and daughter who live alone on an old commune on an island off the Eastern coast of the U.S. Right away you see that Rose really worships her Dad - he is the only man she has ever known and they seem to have a strong bond. Early in the movie we learn that Jack is dying, and he is worried about how Rose will fare after he is gone. In order to fix this problem, he goes to the mainland to see a woman who he has dated off and on, Kathleen (Catherine Keener - amazing). Kathleen has two sons from other men and I think Jack felt like if they moved in, they could provide care for he and Rose, especially after he died. He calls this an "experiment" and once Kathleen and her sons move in, everything changes. Seeing her Dad with another woman, Rose acts out, trying to lose her virginity right away and cutting all of her hair off. As the viewers, I think at this point we are really starting to understand there is more than a father/daughter relationship between Jack and Rose - and perhaps that is why Jack really brought Kathleen to the island - to protect Rose from himself. The rest of the movie shows the challenges the two families face in trying to live together and how Jack and Rose eventually have to face the truth of their relationship - I won't ruin anything for you by going into more detail.

I thought this movie was EXCELLENT. I LOVED the writing and the story was very original. The acting was of course amazing - I was surprised to see Camilla Belle (Rose) act alongside DDL - I was afraid she would disappear but she really held her own. It's not a light-hearted movie but I strongly recommend it.