This North American film has a number of interesting features but fails to come off due to a number of directorial and script decisions. Ramin Bahrani takes the story of a seeds salesman up against it in the Iowa corn belt. On the one hand his two sons don’t seem to want to follow in the family business. The older is off climbing in the Andes and the younger (a surprisingly good Zac Efron) is more interested in a burgeoning Nascar career. Then farmer Harry (excellent Dennis Quaid) is also losing an increasingly dirty battle among the seed sellers
which leads him to take drastic actions. Wife, played by Kim Dickens suffers on
but there is a nice cameo by Maika Monroe as the son’s girl.
So, we have a look at typical farming life today in this part of the world where small farmers are being squeezed out of business and where Monsanto and the like are imposing their dubious will on agriculture. And you have the traditions of the past up against new realities. What could then have been an interesting struggle between the different aspects gets sort of derailed by a fairly lame plot development that is not only badly played out but heaves the film into melodrama, which lessens the film’s impact a lot. 
Disappointing if watchable at the same time.
★★+
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