Leland's United State

From what standpoint are actions to be judged?

If it's from a legal standpoint, then it's from the standpoint of what maintains order and ensures the protection of individual liberties within that context to a greater or lesser extent.

If it's from a moral standpoint, then it's based on perhaps more ancient codes of conduct with objectives not unlike those of current legal systems.

But what if it's from the standpoint of an individual mind grappling with powerful reactions to the core injustices of life that exist behind the thin facades of people's groundless hopes and delusions?

This has something to do with the exceptional indie film, "The United States of Leland," currently on a couple screens in the D.C. Metro area.

It's about the painfully frank yet eerily-compassionate dialogue inside the mind of a Leland A. Fitzgerald, a 15-year-old teenager, played deftly by Ryan Gosling, the former Mousketeer now tabbed ShoWest's "Male Star of Tomorrow," who's jailed for inexplicably murdering his girlfriend's mentally retarded younger brother.

That dialogue, spoken in an understated monotone, comes to the viewer as Gosling's voice-over dominating much of the film. It's his reading out loud what Leland is writing in his personal log while clothed in the standard jailbird red jump suit crouched in his cell at a juvenile detention center. The log is a notebook with "United States of America" printed on the cover. Only Leland crossed out America and wrote his own name.

It's about his world, the nation of himself, and the standard by which he strives to judge his own actions and those of others.

How often to we read of a shocking crime in suburban America – whether it is a youngster shooting up a schoolyard or a trusted citizen caught in a twisted affair – and pass judgment while knowing nothing of or caring nothing for their true contexts?

Too often, the persons themselves caught up in such crimes know as little of their own motives or contexts as the general public horrified by what they've done. Nor can they put rational words to them.

In "The United States of Leland," writer/director Matthew Ryan Hoge, himself a former juvenile detention center instructor, ;provides a rational and human voice for the excruciating pain buried behind veils of numbness that is usually central to seemingly wanton acts.

What could be worse than the murder of an innocent, helpless retarded boy? What could be more heartless? More psychotic? More devoid of human feeling? More purely evil?

Spend some time listening to Leland's internal dialogue, and what he begins to share with his detention center instructor, played by Don Cheadle, who slowly becomes a student hungering to learn from Leland's bold and merciless insistence on what's real.

The result of their interaction enables Leland to admit to his one lie – that there exist no feelings behind his facade of indifference. Leland felt, all right. He felt so much acute sadness that he could not stand it, sadness not just for the fact of the retarded boy's condition, but for the fact that the boy had to live being aware of his condition.

There are no answers in this movie. There is only the exposure to more of what's embedded in the terrible moments of our lives than we usually care to consider.

Kevin Spacey made the film possible. He took it off the dusty shelf of an inspired independent writer and found something important there. He used his independent wealth and reputation in the industry to produce a profound contribution to modern culture. As an afterthought, he decided to play a secondary role in the film, to boot.

For Gosling, it was the kind of film that drew him, as well. Having seen the script, he sought out the role of Leland. He almost didn't get it because he'd done such a good job in his breakout role as a young Jewish Nazi in the Showtime film, "The Believer," according to an interview by Vanessa Sibbald on the Zap2it.com web site. It took persistence to prove to Hoge that he could play Leland and he eventually succeeded. "This is an actor using every tool he has to transform himself, to give a body to an unusual and possibly unlikable character, that's really great," Hoge said of Gosling.

Born November 12, 1980 in London, Ontario, Gosling was, himself, a poor student in school, often ridiculed and placed in classes for slow learners. But his parents didn't give up on him, and chose to home school him, using visual stimulants to trigger his learning capacities. At age 11, he landed a role on the "New Mickey Mouse Club" TV series alongside Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera. He had a part in the "Breaker High" TV series and the title role in the late 1990s' "Young Hercules" TV series. He had a couple lines in the movie, "Remember the Titans," but it was as "The Believer" that he got everyone's attention as a serious actor. He then had a challenging role with David Morse in the edgy 2002 indie film, "The Slaughter Rule," and with Sandra Bullock and Michael Pitt in "Murder by the Numbers." He'll be in "The Notebook," out this summer, "Stay" later in the year, and "Che" next year.

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