A Country Called Home

The gentle drama A Country Called Home is in sync with its small-town Texas setting. Unfortunately, much of it is also as flat as the terrain, despite the efforts of an engaging cast led by Imogen Poots.

It's refreshing to see Poots in a role such as this, one that lets her easygoing charm shine through.

The third act in particular becomes an awkward mixture of broad comedy and pathos.

There's exactly one fascinating, original character in Anna Axster's well-meaning but bland debut feature, "A Country Called Home." Unfortunately, the movie's not about him.

A Country Called Home never goes all-in on the implied cornpone of its title-but it never really goes all-in on anything else, either.

There is not a lot in the plot that is surprising or even original. There is some wit and there is a not too unrealistic look at strained family relationships.

A Country Called Home is a decent enough trip through the back roads of Texas, connecting with a partly dysfunctional family. It's just not something that most viewers will want to write home about.

While I found it sincere, I felt like it meandered too much and suffered from anxiety over what kind of a film it wanted to be.

The rigorously dull A Country Called Home hates flyover country more than Bill Maher.

There's heart here for the taking, but Axster turns a complicated domestic and emotional crisis into an episode of a network television drama.