The Ballad of Jack and Rose (2005)

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Rose lives all alone on an island with her ailing hippie father. She worships him and has incestuous feelings for him. He is still clinging to the dream that the island will remain a paradise away from the rigours of the modern world. However property developers are threatening to move in.It is refreshing to see a story of incest told from a female's perspective. However Rose remains unknowable throughout most of the movie - but then, in essence, so do the other characters, with vague and baffling dialogue. In the second half there are sudden developments that seem too convenient to do away with characters who leave the movie spread far too thin across the remaining characters and remaining runtime. The ending also seemed a bit too neat and tidy for the challenging issues the movie has raised.

I watched this because Daniel Day Lewis is a great actor. But unfortunately the writer his wife Rebecca Miller isn't a great story teller. This is a mildly depressing and uninteresting story about a father and daughter living by themselves isolated from the world in a former commune, fighting against encroaching development and the conflict that arises when the father tries to bring his girlfriend and her sons to live with them. The acting is good especially from Catherine Keener as the understanding girlfriend and Camilla Belle as the sheltered daughter. In the end I really don't care about such screwed up people and I don't think too many people will either. To Daniel Day Lewis - please stick to proper movie roles. This one was a real let down.

You either love "The Ballad of Jack & Rose" or you hate it. I loved it, but I hated watching it the first time. Furthermore, I can understand why some people would heap praise on this quirky bit of avant-garde film-making while others would condemn it to oblivion. "The Ballad of Jack & Rose" is for serious movie lovers. You don't watch this film to relax and unwind. The story of the destruction of family is serious business despite some humorous interludes. Imagine watching a soap opera that could masquerade as social commentary about America after the 1960s. It is the kind of movie that would be terrific as the epilogue to class about the Hippie movement, Free Love, return to the wilderness, and it segues into the environmentalist movement. This movie is not suitable for children and if you cannot watch it in a single sitting, you are liable to feel like you are serving time just to get through its one hour and fifty-one minutes. The cast is extraordinary with Oscar-winner Daniel Day-Lewis delivering a slam bang performance while Catherine Keener. Writer & director Rebecca Miller has helmed a film that is the American equivalent to an Ingmar Bergman film. Subtlety is the order of the day in "The Ballad of Jack & Rose." The characters are neither stereotype nor are they unrealistic. There are times, perhaps best described as uncomfortable, when lenser Ellen Kuras makes her camera such an integral part of the setting with the characters that you feel like you're eavesdropping on these two families and their troubles."The Ballad of Jack & Rose" takes place in the year 1986 on an island off the East Coast of the United States. Essentially, this is a soap opera about the theme of jealousy. Jack Slavin (Daniel Day-Lewis of "My Left Foot") is a naturalized Scotsman who was once an engineer. Now, he is an ex-hippie turned environmentalist who sees no salvation in a future hard-wired by technology and growth has settled on this anonymous island where he lives now with his 16-year old daughter Rose (Camilla Belle of "Push") since his wife went away. Every quarter our protagonist leaves the island for the mainland and hooks up with Kathleen (Catherine Keener of "Living in Oblivion") to satisfy his sexual needs. Recently, Jack has learned that he has heart disease and he isn't getting around as agilely as he used to so he invites Kathleen and her two sons, Rodney (Ryan MacDonald of "Halloween: Resurrection") and Thaddius (Paul Dano of "The Girl Next Door") to join them.Aside from an occasional guest, such as Gray (Jason Lee of "Mallrats"), nobody visits the Slavins. Gray shows up to bring Rose her flowers, otherwise, Jack and Rose are left alone entirely to themselves. She doesn't want to share anybody with Jack. Indeed, when her father raises the subject of his imminent death, Rose notifies him that she plans to commit suicide after he dies because life won't be worth living without him. Of course, Rose's confession horrifies Jack. The only other interlopers on the island are the construction workers who are building a series of apartments for a land developer, Marty Rance (Beau Bridges of "Norma Rose") and Jack has a running feud with Marty.Meanwhile, matters reach a boil when Kathleen and her teenage sons arrive and set up house with them. Jack assures Rose that the presence of these outsiders is nothing more than an experiment. Reluctantly, Rose accepts them. Initially, nothing untoward occurs until Rose behaves like a voyeur and watches Jack and Kathleen hope in the sack for sex. As Jack and Kathleen have sex, Rose approaches Rodney with an invitation to have sex with her. Rose is a virgin. In fact, she has never been kissed and earlier she tried to persuade Gray to kiss her but he refused. Unfortunately, for Rose, she cannot seduce the paunchy Rodney who never removes his windbreaker jacket and has decided to become a hairstylist for women. Rodney agrees to cut her hair. Deliberately, she arms herself with a double-barrel shotgun and invades their privacy. When they pause to recognize her, she discharges the shotgun more out of shock than design. Indeed, Rose wants to share her father with nobody.Later, Rose has a tryst with Thaddius who is a diametrical opposite of his younger brother Rodney. They have sex in her room in her bed. The next day Jack sees the sheets waving in the breeze with a blood stain on it and the words "This is an experiment" with an arrow pointing at the blood stain. Of course, Jack is furious. Rose is still trying to get back at her father for having sex with Kathleen. In fact, she has stolen one of Thaddeus's cages to trap copperhead snakes and has put it under her bed. During her rendezvous with Thaddius, their bumping and grinding released the door to the cage and snake got out. Later, Kathleen freaks out when she sees the copperhead. Jack cannot find it. Jack has a showdown with Thaddius on the site of an old commune and they fight about his having sex with Rose. Jack knocks Thaddius out of a tree and breaks both legs and an arm. Kathleen takes her son back to the mainland, but before they leave, Thaddius tells her that Rose tried to kill her by releasing the snake in the house.Writer & director Rebecca Miller doesn't flinch at tackling uncomfortable themes. During one scene, Jack winds up being kissed by his daughter on the lips and he feels guilty. Eventually, Jack dies and Rose turns their house (they shun television) into a floral arrangement and sets it on fire while she curls up next to her death father. Just when you think that she is going to die with her dad, she breaks out and goes off on her own to make a life.

This was the worst film I have ever seen it didn't make sense at all. two hours of my life i will never get back and tats how i really feel then i wasted a further half hour on two people telling them how awful this film was so over all 3 hours of my life and how ever long it takes me to rite this comment i will never get back. i have read over some peoples comments and i really don't get how any body liked this film and some people say it changed there life how answer me tat how?? now i don't now about any other countries but in Ireland it went straight to DVD and now i now why because it was so rubbish. like Wat was up wit rose gagging for it and then her brother (Paul Dano) having sex wit her i wanted to get sick and then she hung the sheet on the line shes gone in the head and then kissing her dad that was disgusting and what i really didn't get about the film was the end actually i didn't get the whole thing but the end what was that when the camera went to Gary(Jason lee) he kissed some woman then he turns his head and you see rose some body explain as i was like what the hell just happened there? overall as u mite of guessed i disliked the film and wouldn't recommend it to any one.