It's 1986. Jack Slavin (Daniel Day-Lewis) and his young daughter Rose (Camilla Belle) live in blissful isolation on a former island commune off the east coast. They defend ferociously the local wetland against land developer neighbor Marty Rance (Beau Bridges). He invites Kathleen (Catherine Keener) to live with them and she brings along her sons, Rodney (Ryan McDonald) and Thaddius (Paul Dano). Rose is immediately jealous and tries unsuccessfully to seduce Rodney. Red Berry (Jena Malone) arrives bringing candy for Rodney and sex for Thaddius.The opening act confused me with a seemingly disturbing Jack and Rose relationship. It doesn't help that Rose acts like a jealous lover. It turns into an interesting sexual coming-of-age story for Rose as she tries to seduce the new men in her life. Then the last act leaves Jack and Rose back as a weird awkward couple. It's slightly off-putting. The whole movie is filled with interesting performers and slightly off-putting. It's not fulfilling but it does have some interesting bits and pieces.

'The Ballad of Jack and Rose' tells the story of an ailing radical, living a seemingly idyllic life with his daughter, but with his future threatened by the twin threats of development and his own impending mortality. The real theme is sustainability, in it's broadest sense: Jack's world is environmentally sustainable, but not emotionally or economically so. There are some good performances, and the drama stops short of providing simple resolutions as Jack and Rose look to the future. There is some idealisation, however, of their disappearing lives: writer-director Rebecca Miller gives Jack an inheritance, to free him from the need to make compromises in his life, and a disease (a weak heart) he can bear nobly. The totality of Rose's isolation from the world also seems slightly exaggerated - it seems that, in the normal run of things, that the only person she speaks to is her father. I still liked the film, however; and was moved at its end.

"The Ballad of Jack and Rose" (2005): Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Camilla Belle, Catherine Keener, Beau Bridges, Jason Lee, Paul Dano, Ryan McDonald, and Jena Malone. This is the "ballad" of a man trying to keep his personal 1967 alive through his land, home, lifestyle, and daughter. Things are both ideal, and deeply troubled. Enter the "guests" who are mere catalysts for what lurks beneath. Although hyped as a comedy, it is not. At all. It IS touching, creepy, sad, embarrassing, delicate, beautiful, awkward, dramatic, pathetic… but not funny. Lewis always does a great job, Belle was a revelation of delicate, desperate wisdom. Keener was her rough edged, fragile persona. This story lives somewhere between gritty realism and a Legend of Olde. It appears very here and now, while it feels symbolic and literary… a long story to be told night after night around a fire.

I should have known better. Any movie with Catherine Keener is going to be a stinker and this one was. The story did not make a lot of sense to begin with and it is presented in rather piece meal fashion so that it jerks a long without smooth transitions. The movie really falls apart at the end.Aside from Keener's less than mediocre performance, it was often difficult to understand what Daniel Day-Lewis, the father is saying, because of his heavy Scottish accent. Sub-titles would have been appropriate. It is a very dreary story with little suspense or excitement and a waste of time.