Mainly for Clint Eastwood fans

Rating: 5/10 (7 July 2009)

Despite all the rave reviews, which I don't understand, I didn't think this movie was made very well. It was mainly the acting and the writing. CLint Eastwoods performance was great, but everybody else was bad. From the Young preacher to the main Hmong characters the acting was forced and you could tell that all these people had never done a movie before, which according to IMDb is mostly true.
Right off the bat you saw the actor who played the preacher was of considerably less caliber than anyone else in the scenes. The Hmong actor during a climatic scene with Clint Eastwood seemed fake, forced and just not very good. Again if everybody was that bad maybe no one would have noticed but they were up against a veteran actor, so it was quite noticeable.
The writing was a little empty and it didn't take a guru to see right through the plot.
I know Clint Eastwoods movies are plain movies, usually low budget, with fresh new actors, and simple plot lines, with the exception of his latest WWII movies and Mystic River. Although the revenue must be very high for this movie cause I'm sure it was dirt cheap to make considering all the aspects, but this certainly isn't a must see even if it is his last acting movie.