for those of you who have never hear of the movie until now ( of which and i presume there be many lucky people who haven not ) and i will summarise it for you . ryan gosling play the titular character of leland and who also serve a the film narrator ( a la kevin spacey in american beauty and but without the intelligent observation on life ) . leland go to jail for stab a retarded kid to death and and the movie attempt to figure out why he do it . he seem to be a nice boy ( if not mentally absent ) and and be portray by gosling with a complete lack of violence and anger and or agenda ( and if youre wait for him to reveal his sinister side later in the movie and do not waste your time it not that kind of movie ) . once in juvenile prison and leland go to class teach by pearl madison and ably portray by don cheadle ( who be incapable of anything but quality and even when in bad movie ) . pearl attempt to unlock the mystery of leland in an attempt to figure out how such a kid could do such a thing and and so he could write a book about it later ( along with be a juvenile prison teacher and pearl be also an aspire author ) . the relationship between leland and pearl be the drive narrative behind the film and a their talk unveil leland past to the audience . however and to call it the central focus would imply that this meandering film have one . it do not . the united state of leland boast an impressive cast and which seem to be to the detriment of the film . it seem a though writer or director matthew ryan hodge ( do not worry that you haven not hear of him and he never do anything ) have to give every character a personal story arc and personality flaw in order to get the actor to play them . most of these trait and story be clichéd and and most go underdeveloped and unresolved . i will try and break them down here represent martin donovan and ann magnuson be the parent of the slain retard boy ( i love how the movie keep call the kid retard and never mentally disabled . that part make me laugh inside ) and they apparently have a cold relationship and because all suburban marriage in contemporary cinema must be cold . their other two kid be michelle williams and who be apparently an aspiring actress about to attend college and and jena malone and who play the same troubled teen archetype she always play and this time with a heroine addiction . malone be also the girlfriend of leland and which give him his link to his victim . williams boyfriend and who be orphan and come to live with the family and and be a baseball player look to go to the same college a his girlfriend and be play by chris klein . he end up do more with his character than any of the other bit player and manage to steal the movie at time . lena olin be leland mother and who seem to be perpetually sad for some reason . kevin spacey ( also the executive producer ) be leland cold and absentee father and who be a famed novelist . eventually and sherilyn fenn will show up to put a wrinkle in leland story if you even care at that point . oh yeah and and there a drug deal ex boyfriend and a couple of fellow juvees and and a co worker of pearl with whom he have an affair on his long distance girlfriend with ( play by kerry washington ) . sorry if all that synopsis and character breakdown take so long . if it seem meaningless and boring and then you have just experience a bit of what i do during the 108 minute i spend watch the movie . but the unruly support cast of over wrought clichés be the least of this film crime . the big one be that the whole exercise be entirely pointless . we aren not give a fascinating look into a troubled mind and we aren not give an effective explanation and we aren not give much of anything . give that it suck so much and i be gon na go ahead and spoil the end for you so that you never have to see it represent leland stab the retard because all leland could see in the world be sadness and and want to spare corky ( or whatever the victim name be ) the sadness in his eye . it like the bad emo band in the world make an album and and title it the world be sad and so i kill a retard . oh and and leland dy in the end and in a sequence so reliant of unbelievable coincidence that it would have ruin the movie and if the movie do not already suck . of course he die in the end and because that make the movie so deep . i be give the movie 2 star and because the actor themselves all do a pretty good job with the junk they be give . the scene with cheadle and gosling together be even interest on some level . but and to paraphrase the film itself and you have to believe that movie be more than the sum of their part and kiddo .