I enjoyed "Leaves of Grass" for awhile, until writer/director Tim Blake Nelson, who also has a supporting role in the film as a hillbilly pothead, tired me out with his insistence on pushing the film into directions it just didn't make sense for it to go.

Edward Norton is immensely enjoyable as a pair of twin brothers, one an intellectual from the city, the other a country bumpkin with a major marijuana operation, who are reunited after the country brother fakes his death to persuade the other to visit home (a home he has shunned) and then drags him unwillingly into a shady scheme involving some other drug dealers once he gets him down there. There was plenty of interesting potential to be had in the story of these two very different brothers who maybe aren't quite as different as they think they are, but Nelson insists on throwing in a bunch of other distracting plot strands that make what should have been a low-key comedy something schizophrenic and exasperating. The film is only 105 minutes long, yet we have a storyline involving the brothers' mom (played by Susan Sarandon) and the city brother's estrangement from her; a love interest for the city brother (Keri Russell) who recites Walt Whitman poetry while filleting a catfish; the whole drug war storyline that gets queasily violent; and the dumbest storyline of all, involving an orthodontist in debt who hatches a half-assed blackmail scheme. I think Nelson is going for black comedy with much of his film, but he doesn't succeed; the abrupt changes in tone are jarring, and one of the violent scenes at the end involving the orthodontist character is downright tacky.

This movie is a prime example of what happens when a lot of talent is assembled and then squandered by a bad screenplay and unsure direction.

Grade: C

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer ... but never forget the closest thing of all: Family. Although it seems quite distant (beginning) it might be actually the closest (especially if you consider the mind set). But this movie is not about interpreting things or about good or bad.

And while Ed Norton (1) tries to make sense of things, Ed Norton (2) also is very free and does everything he wants to do (either you read the summary and know what I'm about or you are going to have to watch the movie to understand). Great actors in a very twisted little story, that has not easy answers or solutions. Which might be satisfying or not. Depending on your view of things. I liked that it dared to go the direction it took and that it switched gears between comedy and violence (though it didn't feel right mood-wise for the movie).

The movie starts out great. It is smart, sharp, and witty. I would highly recommend doing a quick reading on Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" on Wiki if you are unfamiliar with Whitman's work, what he was trying to accomplish, the criticism of it, as well as the fact he spent his whole life re-writing and expanding it. The movie had the feel of a five star indie in the beginning. Edward Norton, who I have yet to respect as an actor, plays two roles: Bill Kincaid and his twin brother Brad. Bill and Brad are both super intelligent. Brad, the smarter of the two when young, grows pot and enjoys life on the edge. Bill teaches classical philosophy at Brown University. Brad gets his girlfriend pregnant and in order to get Bill to come back to Oklahoma for the wedding, has his friend contact Bill and tell him that he is dead.

Brad has other plans for Bill and plans to use him as an alibi. At this point the movie goes from great to WTF? The flick digresses into what appears to be a writer's inability to figure out how to end a story. Brad, as the smarter brother should of had a better scheme, one where everyone gets what they want, rather than do things by the seat of his pants. I was very disappointed in the writers for leading us down a path that would have made a great classic movie and then not being able to close the deal.