From the first dialogue between fourteen year old Ellis (Tye Sheridan) and his father, through the closing credits when we hear the Beach Boys' Help Me Rhonda for the second time, the pervading theme in this coming of age movie is this: Can you trust the love of a woman? Ellis wants to believe the answer is yes, yet his folks are splitting, his own girlfriend is just toying with him, and the title character he befriends would clearly have been better off had he never met his Juniper (Reese Witherspoon).
Ellis and his constant companion, Nick (Jacob Lofland), are a couple of small town Arkansas kids. Ellis lives in a houseboat docked along the river bank, and the two boys love to go exploring in a motorboat. Their explorations lead them to a discovery of a small yacht which, somehow, is perched in the boughs of a tree on an island down river. A few minutes later they meet a scruffy looking adult (McConaughey), who is packing a .45 in his belt. Even though the man is obviously in hiding, a trusting relationship shortly ensues, and he openly tells them his life's story, although not all at once. He has been living in the boat for the past few days, waiting for the right moment to rendezvous with Juniper. Once they make it to the Gulf via the waterways of the South, no one will ever be able to find them. To pull off the ambitious plan, he needs the help of the boys, enlisting them to bring him food and other supplies from town, and to courier notes to Juniper. Nick isn't too sure aiding the man is a good idea, but the noble Ellis is hooked by the man's passion for his woman. Nick is the pragmatist, Ellis the romanticist. As the two boys are returning upriver to their homes, they realize that they don't even know the man's name. They learn later it is Mud.
The next day when Ellis and his mother come upon a road block while driving on the highway, he finds out Mud is a wanted man . The cops are searching for Mud, whom they believe is in the area. Ellis disclaims any knowledge, and the cops won't tell Ellis what Mud allegedly did, but Mud describes his crime to the boys the next time they're on the island. Mud says he murdered a man in Texas because he assaulted Juniper while she was pregnant. Ellis is even more impressed with Mud after hearing the story, and resolves to do what he can, with Nick's help, to reunite Mud with Juniper.
The cops aren't the only group looking for Mud. The dead man's father (Joe Don Baker) and brother have made it to the river town, and have assembled a team of bounty hunters to make a hit on Mud. One of the few weaknesses of the story is that, except for the road block, the cops disappear altogether, giving the cold blooded killers free reign to hunt down their prey.
The superb Sam Shepard is a mystery man, Tom Blankenship, who lives by himself across the wide river from Ellis. He has a history with Mud as a father figure, but prefers to keep to himself. Is he Mud's real father? An assassin? A special forces vet? He gives advice to Mud and later to the boys. Does it fall on deaf ears? We wonder what part, if any, this character will have as things come to a boil in the final act.
The story reminded me a little of another coming of age movie which I enjoyed very much, 1971's Summer Of '42. As is true in Mud, a group of young teenage boys stumble upon a bigger-than-life figure (beatific Jennifer O'Neill) who has detached herself from the crowd in a location (Nantucket Island) which is germane, if not essential, to the story, while she pines for her lover from whom she is separated by circumstances beyond her control (World War II). Both '42 and Mud are the kind of movies the viewer will think about for days. (The haunting theme song, alternatively titled Theme From "Summer Of '42" and The Summer Knows, from the earlier movie is one of the best of the pop/rock era).
There is no denying McConaughey is solid with his portrayal of the lovestruck fugitive. I didn't think he was as good an actor as he proved to be in this movie. But the real surprise is the spot-on work of young Tye Sheridan, a sixteen year old actor in just his second full length motion picture. His part calls for the widest emotional range among the cast. His handsome looks remind me of a young Paul Newman. Mud is just as much Ellis' story as it is Mud's.
This is the best movie I've seen during the current movie year of February 2013 through January 2014. I deliberated whether to give it an A, and doing so was my preliminary frame of mind upon leaving the theater. I decided to reign that enthusiasm in a notch, though, mostly due to one other weakness (besides the one described four paragraphs above) for which I must give a spoiler alert. I like watching Reese Witherspoon on the silver screen as much as any other red-blooded guy, but bearing in mind that Juniper has already been beaten up by the dead man's brother, once she has made her decision regarding whether to live the rest of her life with Mud, there is no reason for her to remain holed up in the town's motel, or anywhere else in town for that matter. Yet there she is, whiling away the time, watching her little black and white TV in her low budget room, and puffing her cigarettes on the balcony with a view of the parking lot.
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