This movie was a little different from what I expected... I went in thinking I was getting a simple family drama about a woman returning home but nope... We got family problems, dying parents, land disputes, immigration issues, old relationships, angry neighbours and enough tension to make you wonder why anybody still wants to live on that ranch...
The story follows Hassie, a young woman who returns to her family's ranch after being away for years and she's not exactly coming home because everything is going well...
Her father, Sawyer, is seriously ill, and the family is also under pressure from people who want their land.... So Hassie comes back into a situation where almost everybody has something to say and nobody seems willing to actually sit down and talk like normal human beings and honestly...That's how you know you're watching a family drama.
The thing I liked about Casa Grande is that the ranch isn't just a location... The land feels like one of the characters...Everybody wants something from it..
For some people, it's home... For others, it's money... For others, it's about family history and protecting what their parents and grandparents built and that gives the story a little more weight...
Hassie's relationship with her father is probably the emotional centre of the movie... There is love there, but there's also resentment... Years of things left unsaid.. Mistakes, Regrets and the kind of family history that doesn't disappear just because somebody hasn't been home for a long time...
Watching them try to deal with everything while knowing that Sawyer doesn't have much time left gave the movie some genuinely emotional moments and I liked that the movie didn't make the family perfect... They argue, They misunderstand each other, They make selfish decisions..
Sometimes you're watching and thinking:
“Please, just TALK to each other!”.. but then again, if people actually communicated properly, half of these movies wouldn't exist..
The land conflict is where the movie becomes more of a modern Western...
You've got two sides fighting over property, money and control, while other issues involving migrant workers and the border are happening around them...
The movie uses those issues to talk about bigger things like class, power, immigration and who gets to decide what happens to a piece of land.. That part made the story feel more relevant than a simple “rich family versus rival family” plot...
Lou Diamond Phillips also deserves credit.
His character is not exactly the kind of person you're supposed to love and Phillips plays him with enough authority to make you understand why people are intimidated by him...
There is something about watching him on screen that makes you feel like trouble is coming even when he's barely saying anything...
There are moments where I honestly forgot I was watching a drama and just enjoyed looking at the environment...
The movie has that modern Western feeling without needing to turn everybody into cowboys riding around on horses but I have to be honest... The story isn't always as strong as the ideas behind it.
There are a LOT of issues being thrown into this movie... Family, Land, Immigration, Race, Money, Death, Love, Betrayal and sometimes it feels like the movie is trying to discuss everything at once...
Some of the dramatic moments also feel a little too convenient... You can see certain things coming and some characters make decisions that had me asking:
“Why would you do that?” but that's also why I couldn't completely hate the movie.
Even when the storytelling gets predictable, there is enough happening to keep you interested...
Casa Grande isn't an action movie... Don't go into it expecting constant shooting or some massive Western showdown... It's a slow-burning family drama with elements of a modern Western and social commentary... Sometimes it moves slowly.
Sometimes the dialogue feels a little forced and some of the storylines don't get the development they deserve but there is something real underneath all of it...
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Rating: 75/100
