No fracking way: Political to a fault, Promised Land is a hard sell

A drama about fracking? Are you fracking serious? Hard to imagine that discriminating director Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting, Milk) thought Matt Damon and John Krasinski’s Promised Land screenplay — which is based on a Dave Eggers story — would translate well to the big screen. The topic — hydraulic fracturing, aka “fracking” — isn’t one that’s naturally filled with drama and suspense. Granted, the film aims to be more about personal relationships and corporate greed than the environment. But it’s still a hard sell because it puts forth an explicit agenda with which the view really must agree in order to appreciate the film. And, even when you do appreciate the perspective (as we did), it’s hard to give yourself over to such a heavy-handed and slow-moving storyline.

In addition to writing the screenplay, Damon and Krasinski also star in the movie. Damon — who was originally going to direct before passing the reins over to his pal Van Sant — plays Steve Butler, the corporate guy sent into a small town to convince the town’s residents that they need to sell him the drilling rights for their land. Both he and Sue Thomason (Frances McDormand) start making the rounds, visiting homeowners in a door-to-door campaign that they think will encounter little resistance.

But the small town residents are smarter than they think and retired professor Frank Yates (Hal Holbrook) starts questioning Steve and Sue’s motives during an open debate, seemingly starting to sway public opinion before the corporate campaign has really begun. Resistance grows when a schoolteacher Dustin Noble (Krasinski) arrives with stories about how fracking ruined his family farm, and the tide officially begins to shift. Steve and Dustin develop a rivalry of sorts that’s intensified when Dustin begins courting Alice (Rosemarie DeWitt), a single schoolteacher whom Steve befriends one night while on a bender at the town bar.

The acting is solid across the board. Damon plays Steve as a guy who’s ultimately conflicted about his role as a corporate flack, and Krasinski possesses enough charm to make Dustin a legitimate rival. McDormand and Holbrook — two veterans who never phone it in — are good in their limited roles as well. And even though the storyline has a good twist at the end — we won’t spoil it, but Dustin turns out to have a secret of sorts — the plot just isn’t compelling enough to sustain interest for the 106-minute running time.