A bloody and seemingly pointless murder of an autistic boy, brings about a cantankerous amount of toilet-paper philosophy, when the culprit Leland P. Fitzgerald (Ryan Gosling), son of famed author Albert T. Fitzgerald (Kevin Spacey), discloses the reality of his actions to wannabee writer and correctional facility teacher Pearl Madison (Don Cheadle). In the background multiple people cajole and sulk about with their best impressions of Droopy the Dog. These include Becky Pollard (Jena Malone), Leland's ex-girl and former drug addict and Julie Pollard (Michele Williams), prepping for college and a change of scenery, both sisters to the murdered boy. Add on Julie over-protective boyfriend Allen Harris (Chris Klein), Leland's eternally sad mother Marybeth (Lena Olin) and a host of other drab characters to form the backbone of a cumbersome tale of woe, doom and gloom of juvenile sadness.The story labours from the on-set, setting up the overbearing negative mood to the proceedings, which never lighten, instead engulfing the dreariness with adequate music and countless lingering shots of people weeping, praying, fretting, getting high or just plainly pulling a down face. Within this framing comes Pearl Madison, an aspiring writer, who wishes to benefit from the story withheld in Leland's emotions and thoughts. In a venture to disclose the reason, the why, he must come to terms with his own frailties (as he is only a human being) in order to accept the pristine views of his object of interest. Characters throw about tidbits of wisdom frequently, somewhat successfully given the general positive feedback from viewers, but it all seems so flagrantly skin-deep, hitting at you with a lack of restraint and more like microwave philosophy for the modern age, where things must be served fast and straight up.Somewhere near the end the story manages to tie up nicely in a well packaged conclusion, nicely connecting all the loose threads with an effective finale. Shame however that the entire build-up is just so smug and trite.

I believe that is movie is for those 13 and older. At first I thought the movie was going to be rather dull. After the first 10 minutes or so of the film, I found myself drawn in. My mother always told me that a coin has two sides and here you get to know and understand Leland. The lines of good and bad are mixed into shades of gray. The movie is more thought provoking than entertaining. If you want to be entertained, The United States Of Leland is not for you. However, if you happen to be in the "contemplation of life" mentality, this movie may give you some comfort, sort of a Catcher In the Rye film. Not a classic, but OK. No popcorn here. I give it four thumbs up.

***This one has Spoilers*** What have we got here? A middle class family with an autistic son, one of the daughters is doing drugs in and out of rehab like Amy winehouse herself (she'd have made her proud) the other one has her boyfriend living with her in her parents house.Leland's father is a screw up and lets his son know, through sending him plane tickets to travel the globe, that he's there. Further his father is exploiting his own sons situation, after his son killed the autistic boy, by taking notes for a book he intends to write. The mother is bringing their son up on her own.Leland meets that older woman, on one of his trips to New York, and stays in contact with her until he sleeps with her after she is divorced (dream come true with 15 especially with a good looking MILF like that).Leland get's to know that autistic son through Becky (autistic boys drug doing sister) Leland sees sadness everywhere and decides to kill the autistic boy because there is sadness in his eyes and he wouldn't have a normal life? To me Leland shows psychopathic traits...How on earth is killing an autistic person justifiable...??? The Viewer is meant to understand Leland and how he arrived at his decision to kill the boy? All the other inter human relationships and actions portrayed in this film are relationships thousands of people have and worse.Leland had it coming to be stabbed to death in prison.This movie, to me, is utter rubbish. Good acting though otherwise just drivel for pseudo intellectuals and they seem to write reviews in abundance, rating this 7 and above, here on IMDb. I'd give it an eight for its pretentious pseudo intellectual bullshit, however because it is so pretentious one star it is. Stay away from this piece of "intellectual masturbation" . Thanks for ye time

I remember seeing the trailer for this film and I absolutely knew I had to see this movie. It looked like something that would be right up my alley."The United States of Leland" is a terrific movie. It is not one that will leave you with a nice, pleasant ending, but with a sad, empty feeling instead. And when I say it will leave you with an "empty" feeling, I do not mean that as a bad thing. I believe that you are meant to fill that empty feeling with your own thoughts about the characters and human's general motives and how they act as parts of society.Ryan Gosling is perfectly cast as Leland. He is intelligent, yet stoic. I like the way that he narrates the film with his journal. The supporting cast is terrific as well. Kevin Spacey is very good, as always, and Don Cheadle is amazing as Leland's teacher and mentor. This was a great story and is very smart and thought provoking. I highly recommend it.