Sweet Land (PG)

Sep 7 2008 By Roz Laws

IT’S well worth seeking out this small indie film on limited release. It’s beautifully shot and performed, with a simple but effective and romantic plot.

Inge (Elizabeth Reaser) arrives in the farming hinterland of Minnesota in the 1920s to marry young Norwegian farmer Olaf (Tim Guinee), who she’s never met. She’s come from Norway too but she’s German, a fact which perturbs local preacher John Heard, who refuses to marry the couple.

She is forced to stay with Olaf’s friends, Alan Cumming and Alex Kingston, while she battles with red tape. Meanwhile nasty banker Ned Beatty is foreclosing on farmers who can’t pay their mortgages.

Olaf barely speaks but he and feisty Inge slowly fall in love, in an amusing story that’s as sweet as its title.

****