Ain’t Them Bodies Saints – Film
A tale of a man who escapes from prison to be reunited with his wife and their daughter who he has not yet met is the premise of Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, now playing in movie theatres.
Casey Affleck plays Bob, and Rooney Mara plays Ruth, a young couple in love with the rest of their lives ahead of them. With very little money between them, they turn to a life of crime to support themselves. After a robbery gone bad, they get involved in a shootout with the police, and Ruth shoots and wounds a police officer, but it is Bob who takes the blame and is sent to prison, leaving the pregnant Ruth all alone to give birth and raise their child. But he promises to her that he will come back for them.
Four years later, Bob can’t bear being away from Ruth and their child, so he breaks free from prison. This is when Ain’t Them Bodies Saints becomes the adventure of a man desperately wanting to see the two people most important in his life, his girlfriend and daughter, who was born while he was in prison. He will do anything, no matter what it takes, to see them. He will cross streams, hitchhike on trains, steal cars, his heart is aching to see them. Meanwhile, Ruth is quietly raising her daughter in a house provided to her by a friend’s father, and she is also being courted by the police officer that she shot – Patrick Wheeler (Ben Foster), who takes a lot of interest in her and her daughter. Once the word is out that Bob has broken out of prison, Ruth knows exactly where he is headed.
Ain’t Them Bodies Saints is set in Texas in the early 1970’s, with the tumbleweeds rolling across the streets, beautiful picturesque sunsets, and landscape that fits perfectly into the story. And the performances couldn’t be any better. Affleck is perfect as the young man who crosses mile and miles to be with the people who matter most in his life. Just as good is Mara as Ruth, raising her daughter all alone in a small Texas town, trying to get on with her life, and other relationships, but Bob is always in the background of her mind. Writer/Director David Lowery has made a perfect film in which the tone exactly matches the script and sweeps you away for 105 minutes in this visually poetic film. The film title is unique in that the director wanted this film to feel like a song, Classical, American, a little rough around the edges, and meant to feel very old, like a great piece of music, emotions that are timeless and classical. And he has successfully done this.
