Just saw this down at one my favorite local internet theaters and I can tell you that this is definitely one of Cillian Murphy's top performances.
Of course, Murphy was brilliant in 28 Days Later and downright creepy in Batman Begins but his turn as John Skillpa, a young man apparently tormented by years and years of child abuse, shows the truer depths of his acting range.
I'm pretty sure this feature will be well overlooked by the Academy Awards, but it shouldn't be as far as I'm concerned as Murphy and the rest of a well picked cast shine in nearly every scene. To be honest, however, I wasn't thrilled with Ellen Page's performance but I believe she did a capable job in the role she played.
Keith Carradine and an almost unrecognizable Bill Pullman are the other actors of note besides, of course, the pushy but sensitive Fanny Crill played by Susan Sarandon.
What I can tell you, without spoiling the film, is that it's set in a not too distant rural America where the oddities of life must be kept well hidden for one to survive.
What is genuinely fresh and interesting though is how the mind of John Skillpa chooses to handle the forced revealing of a secret he's kept under wraps for quite some time in a quiet house where no one would suspect there was anything out of order.
