The Dry Land

The Dry Land, or American Tragic, is a drama film, directed and written by Ryan Piers Williams. It opened worldwide on July 30, 2010.

The Dry Land
Directed byRyan Piers Williams
Produced byHeather Rae
Written byRyan Piers Williams
StarringRyan O’Nan
America Ferrera
Wilmer Valderrama
Jason Ritter
Melissa Leo
Distributed byMaya Entertainment
Freestyle Releasing[1]
Release date
  • June 24, 2010 (2010-06-24) (Sundance)
  • July 30, 2010 (2010-07-30) (United States)
Running time
92 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$11,777[2]

Plot

James (Ryan O'Nan) returns from Iraq to face a new battle returning to his small-town life in Texas. His wife (America Ferrera), his mother (Melissa Leo), and his friend (Jason Ritter) provide support, but they can't fully understand the pain and suffering he feels since his tour of duty ended. Lonely, James reconnects with an army buddy, Raymond (Wilmer Valderrama), who provides him with compassion and friendship during his battle to process his experiences in Iraq. But their reunion also exposes the different ways that war affects people, at least on the surface. This moving story of redemption and reconstruction extends beyond a post-traumatic-stress-disorder narrative. O'Nan's performance is moving as he explores the depths of his internal struggle; Ferrera fearlessly tackles her role of a young wife in turmoil. The Dry Land is about one man's fight within his own terrain, his country, his home, and his mental health. He fights to rebuild what he lost.

Cast

Reception

The film received generally mixed to positive reviews. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 64% of 25 critics gave the film a positive review, with a rating average of 5.52/10.[3] Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 47 based on 10 reviews signifying "mixed or average reviews".[4]

Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "B" grade and praised Ryan O'Nan's "quietly riveting performance as an Iraq-war veteran who comes undone after he returns home to dusty Texas (the filmmaker's home turf)".[5]

The film received Imagen Awards nominations for best feature film and for America Ferrera as best actress.[6]

References
  1. http://freestylereleasing.com/the-dry-land/
  2. "The Dry Land (2010)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved March 17, 2013.
  3. "The Dry Land". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved May 24, 2020.
  4. "The Dry Land Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved March 17, 2013.
  5. Lisa Schwarzbaum, "The Dry Land (2010)", Entertainment Weekly, Jul 28, 2010.
  6. "Nominees for 25th Annual Imagen Awards Announced", Imagen Awards official website, July 2010.
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