This is quite possibly the worst film I've ever seen. The visual appeal and the attention paid to the technical aspects of filmmaking by the director were not sufficient to overcome the poor storytelling and unlikable, if not downright hateworthy, characters. This is a movie that thinks far too much of itself and presents a specific point of view in the most ham-handed of ways. We are to believe that the "protagonist's" endless stream of poor choices, which include murdering her son's pet pig, are merely the best she can do with what she has. The only saving grace of her act of porcicide is that the poor animal would have eventually met a brutal demise at the hands of the reprehensible monster to which she gave birth. It is never really clear how much the marijuana brownies factor into the child's behavior, but it doesn't matter. Regardless of the driving forces behind the son's destructive and murderous rampages I could not bring myself to sympathize with him. I sympathized with his mother much less. The director would have us believe that the mother and son are the good guys, while men are completely patronizing jerks who are unreliable and will only disappoint you and traditional medicine is a pharmacentric racket that is perfectly fine with making zombies of children. I feel for those who can relate or empathize with the supposed heroine because of their own life experiences. They are the only audience who can possibly find any redeeming value in this film.Everyone else should steer clear.

Unlike other biased reviews from privileged women who have choices in life and chose wrong and are bitter, this review is about the movie.This movie is shown from more than one view.It's about a boy living with an illness in poverty living like all is normal like a child his age does.It's about a mother trying to get by with what she knows.It's about family trying to help them cope with little resources to help.This movie shows struggles in life common to rural America that society left behind.One should go into this movie with a clean slate and watch bit for what it is.It is a simple movie not trying to wow, to prove anything, or to win anything. It just tells a story about the life of people that are born and made everyday due to aa steamroller society that chooses to ignore the have nots.

It kind of scares me that people think this movie is a testament to love. Letting a kid be an impulsive, destructive brat is not what being a mother is about, and it isn't love, it's just wimping out. Children need a parental figure to guide and teach them, build character and caring, not just passively observe and tolerate! He's a child, not a pet! I raised kids alone with a garden to feed us and money from odd jobs I could do while they were at school. We didn't have stuff, but we had love and respect for each other and didn't worry about them destroying the house if I wasn't looking! Life can be tough, but I didn't really need a depressing saga with unlikeable characters(besides the grandfather)to drive it home.

I really thought I would like this movie, but I didn't. The mother and son characters are very unlikable. Each had his own challenges and I kept waiting for them to start to overcome them. Lordy. Painful to watch a terrible, lazy, inept mother raise a completely thoughtless, undisciplined son. Just because you're poor doesn't have to mean you're filthy and stupid. Where was this mother's effort to earn money in a meaningful way. Or to raise a child in a happy but at least minimally structured way? Utter fail. Very little redeeming values to the characters. I thought this was supposed to be about a strong mother? Don't bother with this one. It will leave you frustrated.