JESSICA RATCLIFFE
Arts Writer

Edward Norton can do no wrong.

Well, almost.

I mean, there was that widely discredited 2008 rendition of The Incredible Hulk in which he starred as Bruce Banner. And 2002’s unpopular Death to Smoochy (which, I’d argue, was a surprisingly solid film that most people ignored solely because of its title). For the most part, however, Norton doesn’t involve himself in bad films. Leaves of Grass is no exception.

In the movie, Norton plays identical twin brothers Bill and Brady Kincaid. As is the case with most big-screen depictions of twin siblings, the two brothers are complete opposites of one another. Bill is a well-read, sophisticated philosophy professor who has moved to the big city and distanced himself from his less-educated family back in Oklahoma. Brady, a professional marijuana farmer, has remained in his hometown Little Dixie for his entire life.

The story revolves around Bill’s trip back to Little Dixie; a trip necessitated by a phone call he receives some days before notifying him of a tragic event in his hometown. We follow Bill as he travels back to his roots and reunites with his family. We learn that his mother, played by Susan Sarandon, is a pot-smoking ex-hippie who checked herself into a rest home about 12 years too early, thereby alienating herself from her sons and the rest of the world. Suffice it to say that her relationship with Bill (and even with Brady) is somewhat strained.

At the heart of the movie, however, lies the relationship between the two brothers. It is revealed to the audience early on that Bill and Brady have become estranged over the years. Bill hasn’t come back to Little Dixie in ages, and Brady, we presume, wouldn’t have had any means of going out to visit his brother.

Their reunion and the events that follow provide most of the film’s action. Their starkly different personalities provide the friction from which many of the film’s outrageous events and plot twists stem.

The film succeeds in many ways. Norton’s portrayal of each brother is remarkable. Other than giving Brady longer, shaggier hair and giving Bill more formal-looking clothing, the producers do not do much to make the two appear physically different. Instead, they make the intelligent decision of relying mostly on Norton’s acting skills (and changes in accent) to make a clear distinction between the two men for the audience.

The movie also does well not to obey classic big-screen stereotypes. We are introduced to Brady, for example, early on in the film as both a typical slow-minded Southerner and an unintelligible stoner guy. These first impressions are soon turned on their head, however, when we learn that Brady has built his own technologically-superior pot-growing hub and that, for the most part, he runs his modestly successful drug business by himself.

In some ways, he is as clever and practical as his brother, the Ivy League professor. Brady even admits to Bill at one point that he reads every article and essay Bill publishes. Granted, he notes, it takes him an entire day to read each one and he always does so with a dictionary in hand. And not just any ol’ Merriam-Webster, he says, the “motherfuckin’ OED!”

The film takes a turn for the worse, however, when one of the brothers commits an out-of-character, shocking and, perhaps unforgivable act. From here, the film is weakened by unlikely plot twists and uncharacteristic behaviour on the part of the leads. If the writers and producers had stayed true to their characters and their hitherto mostly realistic portrayal of lower-class life in Oklahoma, the film would surely have been scored much higher by me and other fans alike.

Apart from its disappointing last 30 or so minutes, Leaves of Grass is a decent flick. Certainly not up there with Norton’s greats (I’m thinking of Fight Club and American History X in particular), but an entertaining and, at times, moving piece of work nonetheless.