Gena Cornett

I've learned that if the professional critics hate a movie, it's probably worth watching, and this one is a gem. Sean Penn is excellent as Dr. Minor, suffering from PTSD and paranoid schizophrenia, imprisoned in an asylum for the criminally insane, but with compassionate guards and superintendent but still subjected to the barbarically experimental "treatments" of the time. Mel Gibson and Natalie Dormer also turn in solid performances. The story is engaging and touching, with a theme of redemption, supported by the beautiful and haunting score of the brilliant Bear McCreary.

There is one scene that epitomizes the Hollywood critics' lambasting of this movie - when J.D. is at a dinner with elite attorneys, hoping for an interview for an internship. The discomfort of the attorneys when told he is from Appalachia, their inability to identify with someone outside their circle, their interest only in the prurient Hatfield-McCoy history, says it all. The Hollywood critics who have written such bad reviews are sitting up in their elite ivory towers with no conception of what it is to live in "flyover" country, to be from poor, rural America, to struggle with generational family abuse and addiction. The people in this movie were so real and raw, it is no wonder so many "average" people resonate with the story, having lived the experience, grown up in the towns abandoned to globalism, tried to cope with family members addicted to heroine and struggled to escape abuse and poverty. We can identify with J.D. and the marks his childhood leave on him, as well as the spur to seek a better life. Glen Close is amazing as Mamaw, an Oscar-worthy performance for sure, and I hope she gets it this time. This movie is powerful and deserves to be seen. Ignore the critics and judge for yourself.