Movie Review:MUDBOUND (2017)

    MUDBOUND is a NETFLIX Original movie that you can obviously watch right now-on NETFLIX.
   Based on the novel by Hillary Jordan and brought to the screen by talented Director Dee Rees, with a screenplay written by Rees and Virgil Williams, MUDBOUND tells the story of two families. One White (The McAllan family), the other Black (The Jackson Family). Henry McAllan (Jason Clarke)is the head of his family, who in the beginning, moves his family to a rural Mississipi farmland that has more mud than crops. Clarke is slowly winning me over with each film I see him in and does a fine job here. Carey Mulligan (The Great Gatsby) plays his wife, Laura, who is equally strong-willed as her husband and stands by Henry's dream of running a successful farm, no matter how bad things get for them or their two children. There is also Henry's younger brother, Jamie (Garrett Hedlund from TRON: LEGACY). He possesses a charm that wins over the ladies but also is a reckless drunk. He can't shake his memories of serving in World War II, so he turns to the bottle in hopes that his pain will be lessened. Last and certainly least is Henry and Jamie's racist father, Pappy, played by Breaking Bad and Better Call Me Saul's Jonathan Banks. Pappy is the proverbial log on an already raging fire that exists between the McAllans and our second family-The Jacksons.
  The Jackson Family is led by Hap (RobMorgan) and his strong spirited wife played by singer Mary J. Blige. They do everything in their power to provide for their children and support each other through good and bad. Hap dreams of owning his own farm but grows tired of seeing his dream taken away by racist people at every turn. There is their oldest child, Ronsel (Jason Mitchell) who when we first meet him, is leaving to go fight in the war. Much of the second half of the film focuses on Jamie and Ronsel's return from the war and integrating back into life on the farm.
   Rees does a remarkable job of crafting a film about the strength of the human spirit, one that doesn't view or judge someone by their skin color, but instead, from a bond of similarities and commonalities to rise above hatred and evil people. MUDBOUND does move a bit slow at times, but ultimatley is a moving drama that I recommend to anyone intrigued.
    I give MUDBOUND a B+.