High on drama

The Whipple farm has been in the Whipple family for four generations, but it is heading for disaster.

Henry Whipple, who inherited the farm and seed agency from his father, is hoping that his two sons, Grant and Dean, will follow in his footsteps.

But Grant went off to college for a few years, before setting off on adventure. And Dean wants nothing more than to be a professional Nascar stock car driver.

Henry is also not a good role model for Dean, who rebels against his father and doesn’t want to get involved in the farming politics.

An investigation into possible fraud committed by Henry by the seed agency he is contracted to, threatens the whole family’s livelihood.

This is drama, drama, drama from beginning to end. The story is good and both Dennis Quaid (Henry) and Zac Efron (Dean) give good, mature performances which pull at you.

Seeing both of them in a film that isn’t mainstream and falls far outside their normal scope, was surprising in itself, but more surprising was that they both pulled of these dramatic roles.

Not a lot happens in the movie, but mostly through the dialogue and interaction between the main characters, you get to the heart of the story – that of a man who has become bogged down in the competitive world of modern farming and whose morals and ethics have been skewed by it.

Unfortunately, the film has too many unnecessary sub-plots that detract from the main story and I feel that, if they had left some things out, the story could have been even stronger.