My Name is Mud

Categorizing the film Mud proves a difficult task, as the line differentiating it as a coming of age film from a love story is more blurred than the eyesight of an individual with 60/40 vision (and I’m not sure if those vision numbers are even possible). Therefore, since it doesn’t neatly fall into either category, I have decided that it falls into both, and possibly others.

The plot follows the intertwined and damaged lives of inhabitants of Arkansas; a 14-year-old boy in particular, who still possesses the enviable, glass-half-full optimism about love and life that exists within us until life experience mercilessly beats it out of our core. His name is Ellis, and he is played exceptionally well by silver screen newcomer Tye Sheridan. One day while out exploring a little island with his foul-mouthed friend Neckbone (I pray to God that is just a nickname, but we never actually find out and it is Arkansas, after all), the two boys discover that the abandoned boat stuck up in a tree that they hope to claim as their own is already inhabited by a mysterious man named Mud. Played by Matthew McConaughey, Mud solicits the boys’ help by asking them to bring him food. In exchange, he makes a deal with them that should they choose to help him, he will give them the coveted boat (I’m still not sure of what is so exciting about a non-functioning boat in a tree). The boys soon learn that Mud is on the run from the law and the plot quickly becomes a race against time to get Mud and his sexy lady (played by Reese Witherspoon), who just arrived in town to run away with him, away before he is caught. Dr-AH-ma!

In all seriousness, the character development in the film is quite powerful. Ellis’ mindset about love is all bunnies and unicorns at the beginning- he is more of a romantic than Ewan McGregor in Moulin Rouge. To him, it makes sense to do ANYTHING for love- no questions asked, and not to do so thrusts his mind into the ultimate state of confusion. When his parents inform him of their impending divorce, it simply doesn’t make sense- if people are in love, why would they ever get divorced? This thought process applies to all kinds of love in Ellis’ life- friendships just as much as romances. That’s why, as relationships begin to break and dissolve around him, he feels so deeply betrayed.

I’m not convinced that Matthew McConaughey would have so much muscle tone after living on a small island for an indeterminate period of time eating nothing but a couple of cans of beans a day. But aside from that, I was truly engrossed in this powerful film.