But what the films have in common is an attempt to demonstrate the evilness of huge corporations, the manipulative, cruel things they’ll do to get what they want and how those choices display the expendable nature of normal people. “Syriana,” which focused on our need for oil and how it drives the political process between the U.S. and the Middle East, excelled at showing the lines between those varying entities. “Promised Land” wants to do the same thing within the U.S., linking big money conglomerates, hydraulic fracturing (known as “fracking”), and the ruin of our farming communities, but it’s so heavy-handed and its protagonist so frustratingly “good” that it gets nowhere. There is a legitimate twist in the film, one that made me gasp out loud, but that doesn’t impact how “Promised Land” ends. And its the same ending you can guess from the beginning of the film.
Written by Dave Eggers (who previously wrote the film version of “Where the Wild Things Are”), directed by Gus Van Sant, and starring Matt Damon, the film has a fair amount of liberal pedigree; you know the evils of fracking will be stressed here. But for the most part, Damon and co-star John Krasinski, who also wrote the film together, do an even job. Some of the people who work for Global Crosspower treat it simply like a career, an occupation that doesn’t follow you home. A good amount of the people in the small town targeted by the corporation think the money will save them; they don’t care about the land anymore. And, of course, there are the environmentally conscious people both in the town and outside of it, those with very strong opinions against fracking and who will go to any lengths to stop it.
Although the film features all of these people, it’s the last group who is depicted most sympathetically. And even then, Damon and Krasinski don’t give the good guys enough character development for the film to be impactful or affecting. The enlightened and educated sway others to their cause with minimum effort; very little is required to convince bad people of their badness. Maybe it’s wishful thinking on the writers’ part, that such drastic decisions could happen in such a short amount of time. But it doesn’t seem realistic, and so “Promised Land” lacks the weight it should have.
The film focuses on Steve Butler (Damon, of “We Bought a Zoo,” “Happy Feet Two,” “Contagion,” “The Adjustment Bureau,” and “True Grit”), a top salesman for natural gas company Global Crosspower. His specialty is convincing entire towns to sell the land out from under them at pennies on the dollar, drawing on his own background growing up in the small town Eldridge, Iowa, to connect with these people. With a promotion to New York City looming in his future, Steve has a final assignment to go, one he takes on with his colleague Sue Thomason (Frances McDormand, of “Madagasar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted,” “Moonrise Kingdom,” and “Transformers: Dark of the Moon”). Together they tackle the assignment, sure all their practiced methods will work. Both wear flannel to look like townees and then they divide and conquer the citizens, with Sue talking to mothers about their children’s educations and Steve to men about the money they could make. All is going well. They bribe a local official to get him on their side. They show up to a town meeting, thinking it’s smooth sailing from there.
And then, totally shockingly to Steve and Sue, the town fights back.
High school science teacher Frank (Hal Holbrook, of “Lincoln” and “Water for Elephants”), who forces Steve into letting the town vote on whether to allow the fracking, turns out to be a highly educated environmentalist, with numerous degrees under his belt. Fellow school teacher Alice (Rosemarie DeWitt, of “The Odd Life of Timothy Green” and “The Watch”) knows of Frank’s intellect, but is intrigued by Steve’s charm and charisma. And then there’s Alice’s boyfriend Dustin (Krasinski, of “Big Miracle,” “Something Borrowed,” and “Monsters vs. Aliens”), deeply involved in a grassroots activist group, totally against Global Crosspower, and proving to be a rival to Steve in more than just a romantic way.
What “Promised Land” does, somewhat commendably, is try to give every character the benefit of the doubt. Sue thinks of the job as just a job; you can tell her true passion is her teenage son and the time they spend video-chatting. Alice isn’t sure what to believe, but cares about the future of her students. Dustin is committed and campaigning, drawing on his own personal and negative experiences with fracking in his quest to end the practice. And Steve is a chameleon, feigning ignorance about fracking around the townspeople but truly bitter about his own small-town upbringing and the “delusional self mythology” of the “farming town fantasy.” He knows fracking isn’t flawless, but he thinks it’s the only way to pump money into these failing communities, to help set them up for another life somewhere else. And when people can’t understand how to play that game or refuse to, he just doesn’t get it. “This town, this life … it’s dying!” he tells people, and (unsurprisingly), they’re not so happy to hear that.
But the problem with “Promised Land” isn’t the performances (Damon has such an ease about him that you totally understand why people would be convinced by his schtick, and Krasinski is similarly appealing) or its hard truths, because anyone who knows anything about fracking can see its downsides. The issue, rather, is how heavy-handed the film is in its portrayal of both the evil corporations and the corruptive nature of money. Businesses will do whatever! Every authority figure is looking for a bribe! Any viewer of this movie could make a decision for themselves, but “Promised Land” won’t leave that choice up to you. Much like a character tells Steve that Global Crosspower tries to “control every outcome,” the film does the same thing. Its preachiness is its greatest detriment.
Couple that with the not-all-there character development, and “Promised Land” feels like a lot of lesson and only a little movie. It will get you against fracking and thinking about how businesses treat people (at one point, a citizen sneers to Steve, “The only reason you’re here is cuz we’re poor”), but it’s not delicate or subtle. “Promised Land” doesn’t want to woo you; this is a clobbered-over-the-head film experience.
