Sweet Land

REVIEW
An incredibly impressive first feature by writer-director Ali Selim, Sweet Land is all anyone could want from a movie: it’s artful, intelligent, emotional (without being manipulative) and blessed with a truly eclectic cast, including Alan Cumming as an immigrant Norwegian farmer, no less. But the real find among Selim’s cast is ravishing newcomer Elizabeth Reaser, cast here as a German mailorder bride in 1915 – she is as impressive with flawless accents as Meryl Streep. Selim pulls off a tricky miracle by opening her film with two (count ‘em, two) flashbacks before getting to the core of her story. An old woman’s death inspires her grandson to think back about his grandmother, and the grandmother (an impressive Lois Smith), in turn, thinks back to her auspicious, often painful arrival in this country as a German immigrant just after WWI. As a youth, she is played by Reaser, seen recently as Diane Keaton’s elder daughter in Thomas Bezucha’s The Family Stone, and as the star of Maria Maggenti’s Sundance attraction Puccini for Beginners. Reaser is perfectly matched in Sweet Land with an affecting Tom Guinee, and the two share extraordinary chemistry. Smith, Paul Sand, Alex Kingston, Ned Beatty and the surprising Cumming round out Selim’s stellar ensemble cast, and David Tumbley contributed the superior cinematography.