Soda Springs (2012)
4/10
Long, Pointless & Boring
4 January 2014
I don't doubt that every day life in a small town in Southwestern Idaho is slow, but that doesn't mean I want to watch a movie of this depicted. The movie was supposed to be about a good man who made a mistake and needed redemption, but there is no indication that he was ever a good man. He had a reputation as a party guy and he tried to cheat on his wife.

Having said that, the photography was nice. There aren't too many movies filmed in Idaho. I have always found it strange that Country-Western music almost never comes from "country" areas outside the South. Yet in this picture you see guys making country music, minus the accent. If there really are guys like this making such music in non-Southern places, why don't they make it to Nashville? This part of Idaho is both "country" and "Western." It seems that in real life the lead actor is considerably older than what he was playing. He is in his early 50's. I assumed he was supposed to be in his late 30's in the movie.

I got a real kick out of seeing the bad boy played by Michael Bowen. He played the same character in Valley Girl, opposite Nicholas Cage in 1983.

There was virtually no religion or God injected into this story. The guy lives in a small town, and one cop mentions church, but you never see anyone going to one. I think the main guy does go back to his jail cell to retrieve his Bible. They clearly decided not to go in that direction.

I don't actually blame him for returning to his home town. Where else are you going to go, like his mother said. Home is home, even when you screw up.

I don't think he ever apologizes to his wife for anything. If he did, it wasn't memorable.

This picture did have redeeming qualities, not enough to save it from the bargain bin at Walmart.

What I really needed to see was a little more emotion from people. There is one scene where the main guy breaks down just for a second, but it was cut short. Let it out man! Let's make a movie about real people. Even the strong, silent cowboy types let go once in a while.
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