Movie review: Even Danielle Deadwyler can’t rescue ’40 Acres’ from wasteland

Danielle Deadwyler is one of the most of captivating screen actors working the present day bringing visceral intense emotion to her performances in Till and The Piano Lesson and elevating schlocky genre fare like The Woman in the Yard and Carry-On But not even Deadwyler can save the dystopian action-horror film Acres despite her Herculean efforts The feature directorial debut of music video director R T Thorne Acres is a tale of apocalyptic struggle steeped in Canadian history Deadwyler stars as tough-as-nails Hailey Freeman a military vet and descendant of American runaway slaves who settled in Canada in the th century After a fungal pandemic decimated the animal biosphere resulting in civil war and famine Hailey and her blended family have survived living in seclusion thanks to hard work and strict protocols She and her partner Galen Michael Greyeyes live in relative peace with their four children growing their own food and sniping any interlopers who show up on their property Hailey s methods might keep her family safe but they also put her at odds with her son Emanuel or Manny Kataem O Connor with whom she has a complex relationship There is no destabilizing force like teenage rebellion and Manny is bored restless and interested in possibly meeting certain girls other than his sisters When he balks at killing a young female intruder we know that Manny might be a challenge when it comes to his family s precaution which grows increasingly tenuous Every night Hailey sits in her fortified basement bunker checking in with neighbors via shortwave radio and a multitude of have gone silent with rumors of flesh eaters on the hunt The ultimate crack in the wall that lets the evil into the Freeman farm is a predictable one against which Manny has no resolve a pretty girl Milcania Diaz-Rojas who turns up at their fence asking for help Coming from music videos Thorne knows how to maximize aesthetics on a budget and Acres is heavily stylized with a desaturated color palette during daylight and high-contrast lighting in night scenes Drone shots capture the isolated rural farm in context and Manny s moody roaming in the surrounding forest listening to De La Soul cassette tapes on his Walkman There are a few beautiful shots especially at night but throughout the color correction is pushed a bit to the extreme perhaps overcompensating for what might have been budgetary restrictions The script by Thorne Glenn Taylor and Lora Campbell is not particularly deep beyond it s surface world-building With a sustained slow-burn suspense Acres never manages to break out of its tense dynamic either Tightly wound Deadwyler nearly vibrates off the screen as the high-strung and hyper-vigilant Hailey She is riveting but alone on an island in the film O Connor doesn t have the chops to hold his own opposite her and Greyeyes is relegated to a role that serves as a warm often amusing presence tonally at odds with Deadwyler s full-bore performance It s fascinating to see an actor of Deadwyler s caliber playing in the action world sinking her teeth into leading lady roles that allow her to display her grit and fighting skills These characters have agency and Deadwyler carries a kind of intelligence that makes it seem like Hailey is the only one making all the right decisions even as everyone around her makes the wrong ones If only the rest of Acres rose to her level it could have been one of the the bulk gripping genre films of the year Alas despite it s intense violence it ends up feeling more like a made-for-TV thriller of the week than anything else Acres stars out of MPA rating R for strong bloody violent content and language Running time How to watch In theaters July Related Articles Movie review Jurassic World Rebirth brings renewed wonder fun to franchise Heads of State review John Cena and Idris Elba club up for more action less politics Movie Review Jurassic World Rebirth puts a wobbly franchise back on track with superb installment Movie review M GAN upgrades killer robot action Movie review Boyle Garland bring life to zombie genre Years Later