This Casting Director Deserves an Oscar

I actively hate fishing.  And the outdoors.  And nature in general, really.  So I honestly did not have high hopes for this film.  Luckily, my opinion changed pretty quickly.  During the first scene, to be precise.  Murmurs of “Is that a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt?” floated throughout the classroom.  Indeed it was.  Things were looking up for this movie already.  And then Brad Pitt came onscreen.  I was sold.

While the cast was spot-on, the true charm of this movie came from the characters themselves.  The film follows two very different brothers who make their way through life together, forever bounded by the river of their youth.  Even though they end up taking very divergent paths, their love for each other is always abundantly apparent.  Someone remarked in class that the film was a little too anticlimactic for their tastes.  But in my opinion, it didn’t really need a climax.  The point of the movie was not to keep you at the edge of your seat.  The point was to tell a story, beautifully and honestly, about two men and the seemingly average lives they lead.  But even an average life can become extraordinary if you look closely enough.  Something that I thought was a very nice touch was the Robert Redford voiceover where he played the elder Norman reflecting back on his life and the people who made it worth living.  The viewer gets to experience the events both in the moment and in retrospect, which lends a unique perspective to the narrative.

The sibling dynamic between the two brothers was one of the most fascinating parts of this movie.  On one hand, you have Paul, the wide-eyed, impetuous younger brother with a penchant for booze and gambling.  And then you have Norman, the serious, level-headed professor with aspirations bigger than his sleepy Montana hometown.  Norman is the type of person who can perfect a craft with a great deal of concentrated effort and practice.  Paul is the type to have an inherent gift.  I think even Norman realized that his brother was a better fisherman than he, though I’m not sure he would ever admit it.  Paul was one with the river.  He was attuned to its behavior in a way that Norman never really could be.  Norman relied on intellect; Paul followed his heart.  Unfortunately, following his heart and being ruled by emotion is what ends up getting Paul into trouble, and ultimately leads to his untimely demise.

To be honest, fly-fishing just seems like a recipe for disaster for the coordination-challenged, such as myself.  But I love how graceful they made it appear in the film.  And furthermore, I love how they managed to reveal the characters’ emotions and personalities by showing how each member of the family would act while fishing.  You knew exactly how that person’s life was going by the amount and type of fish he caught.

Perhaps it is because fall break is approaching and I’m feeling sentimental about going back to see my family, but something about this movie really hit home for me.  Paul and Norman reminded me of me and my own brother.  When Norman went away to college leaving Paul at home, I was reminded of the slight feeling of abandonment that I myself experienced when my brother left home.  Seeing the strong importance that the Macleans placed on family made me feel guilty that I had been too busy to call my mother for the past two and a half weeks.  Really, it just made me miss the old days when we were all together still.  By the end of the movie, I dare say I got a little misty-eyed.  But I swear to god it was just allergies.