Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
Set in postwar America, a man watches his seemingly perfect life fall apart as his daughter's new political affiliation threatens to destroy their family.
American Pastoral adapts Philip Roth's Pulitzer-winning novel with competent but uninspired execution. Ewan McGregor's directorial debut captures the era reasonably well but flattens the novel's complex interior monologue into a fairly conventional family drama. The performances are serviceable—McGregor as the Swede and Jennifer Connelly as Dawn are decent but never transcend the material—while Dakota Fanning's turn as Merry is the most committed. Cinematography is polished but unremarkable for a period drama. The film struggles most with its ending and structure, losing the novel's devastating irony and emotional weight in translation. It feels like a missed opportunity to render one of American literature's great postwar laments, resulting in a middling adaptation that plays it safe.